Twelve Months
by EmbracingRain
Summary: Chad Dylan Cooper didn't DO love. Yet, as he watched Sonny Munroe greet his parents, he felt his stomach turn over in a not entirely unpleasant way that he wrote off as nausea. First in the Years story arc.
1. Prologue: The Closet

**A/N:** My submission to Dancing on Rainbows' "Un-Cliché the Clichés!" challenge.

This is the challenge:

Your challenge is to take one of the following clichés among the SWAC stories and make it unique and enjoyable to read!

OPTION ONE: Sonny/Chad has to ask Chad/Sonny on another "fake date."

OPTION TWO: A famous celebrity guest stars on "The Falls" and takes an interest in Sonny; Chad gets jealous.

OPTION THREE: James tries to get Sonny back.

I picked the first option, naturally, and I'm really looking forward to meeting this challenge! Not only am I a _Sonny With a Chance_ fan, but I am also a _**MEGA HUGE **_Jane Austen fan. You have no idea. Seriously. So what I chose to do for this fic (in order to make it "unique") was base it off my favorite Austen novel, _Persuasion_. It's still a modern day fic, and I don't plan on changing anything about the characters and such, so no worries!

For those of you who haven't read _Persuasion_, it's basically about this girl named Anne Elliot who falls in love with a naval officer named Frederick Wentworth. They're engaged to be married until Anne's mother figure, Lady Russell, convinces Anne that she could find someone better to marry. Seven years later, Anne is on the brink of becoming an "old maid" because she's found nobody else. But when Frederick's sister and her husband move in next door, Anne gets another chance at being with Frederick again.

I used Portlyn/the rivalry between _So Random!_ and _Mackenzie Falls_ as the "Lady Russell" figure in this story. Meaning that the only reason Sonny and Chad aren't together is because the rivalry/Portlyn convinces them otherwise. As for their second chance at being together…well, you'll see! Let's just hope neither of them screw it up, haha.

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Prologue

* * *

It had started off so simply. A simple gesture of kindness. Something he rarely did. Yet, here he was getting back at her for getting back at him for getting back at her for that stupid fake date. They were squished in some random hall closet he hadn't even known _existed_ until now, hiding from his great aunt Marietta. Sonny was giggling in an exceedingly annoying way, so he'd placed his hand over her mouth in an attempt to quell the laughter seeping from her mouth.

At first, Sonny had been really irked with him, and went so far as to _lick his hand_ in order for him to remove the offending appendage from her face, but he'd just smirked cockily at her as a refusal to comply. After several minutes of glaring (he could barely see her eyes through the darkness), she started laughing again.

Chad sighed. This was what happened when his mother believed everything she read in the tabloids: he got stuck in random, dark closets with Sonny Munroe, hiding from his great aunt Marietta.

Great Aunt Marietta was a _very_ large woman with a laugh like a horse and teeth to match. She had frizzy, steel gray hair and green eyes that bugged out of her head like a frog's. Her voice was an alto pitch but could reach a very, _very_ high soprano when she was excited or angry. Great Aunt Marietta also had thirteen cats (thirteen to prove she wasn't superstitious) that she liked to bring with her whenever she visited. She also had a nasty, foul-mouthed parrot that she brought to the dinner table. His name was Merle and he had a mouth worse than a sailor's.

Great Aunt Marietta had never been married (it wasn't hard to figure out _why_), but she would tell anyone who listened about how Frank Sinatra had been her "beau" and how Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and James Dean had all been "wild about her." Chad and Sonny had, in fact, heard the Frank/Elvis/Johnny/James story twice over the past three days. Unwillingly, of course. And that was why they were hiding from Great Aunt Marietta right now.

She was a _nightmare._

Besides, it's not like Chad would _want_ to be in a closet with Sonny Munroe. She was a _Random_ for crying out loud! The members of "The Falls" simply did not mix with the cast of _So Random_. That was just the way things were.

Usually.

One year ago when Sonny Munroe had come waltzing into his life with her cheerful smile and perky personality, he'd had every intention of asking her on a date. But then Portlyn had caught on to his scheme and put a stop to it immediately. By sitting on him until he gave in. Portlyn wasn't fat or anything, but she did have a lot of muscle, so she weighed more than Chad thought she did. It wasn't his most favorite memory of her. She'd been very red in the face and yelling almost incoherently about the rivalry between the two shows (it was true that she couldn't talk without a script).

Then she had sat on him and shoved his beautiful face into the carpet on his dressing room floor until he'd given in.

He'd had rug burn on his forehead for a week.

Eventually, Sonny just became someone he liked to antagonize on a daily basis. And the best part was that his cast was entirely fine with it because they thought he _meant_ it. They really and truly thought he hated Sonny Munroe. And that worked for him.

Then, Sonny had called him one night during the week James Conroy was guest starring on _Mackenzie Falls._ It took quite a bit of lying and pretending to vomit while on the phone with Portlyn to convince her that he was "too sick" to come to her birthday party, but Chad managed to weasel out of it in order to take Sonny on that ridiculous fake date. His reasoning was that Sonny was going to owe him _big time_ for taking part in her little plan (never mind the fact that he thought he actually had feelings for her and just wanted to see what going out with her would be like).

She'd kissed him that night.

She denied it every time it came up, but Chad would swear up and down until he was blue in the face that her fingers had slipped and he'd gotten some actual lip action.

He'd texted her the next day telling her that she owed him. She'd called him back and they'd argued about it for a bit, but, ultimately, Chad won the spat after a few "fines" and "goods."

Chad hadn't used his fake date until his mom called him up three months ago and the date became a necessity.

And that second fake date was the reason he was currently trapped in a closet with Sonny Munroe with his hand covered in her saliva and Great Aunt Marietta's stupid parrot squawking obscenities as he followed the ancient woman down the hall.

* * *

Soooo... Was it unique? Was it interesting to read? Let me know in a review!

Next chapter will detail Chad's conversation with his mom and why he had to use his fake date with Sonny. After that, we'll eventually get back to the closet scene and then we'll go from there. This story will encompass several holidays and special occasions, so it will be on the longer side of the challenge. I'm anticipating fourteen chapters in all, but that's including this prologue. So probably thirteen chapters plus this prologue.

Anywho!

_Please_ review!


	2. Month One: A Very Cooper Christmas

A/N: Hey, guys! Welcome back to _Twelve Months!_ We're getting into the story, and we're starting the journey to how Chad and Sonny ended up in the closet. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month One

A Very Cooper Christmas

* * *

**December 16th**

**8:56 a.m.**

**Condor Studios Parking Lot**

It wasn't that Chad cared (because he _didn't_), but when he walked past Sonny Munroe's car on his way into the studio Wednesday morning and noticed that the bubbly brunette was curled up miserably in her seat, he couldn't help but turn back around and rap on the window so he could find out what her problem was.

"General Grant" was a 1969 Dodge Charger. His rear bumper was held on with duct tape. The doors squawked hideously when they were opened, the review mirror was super glued to the windshield, and the backseat was ripped to shreds. The right headlight was smashed in, too, and the once-cherry-red paint job was now faded and a bit rusty.

Sonny, as it turned out, was a huge fan of _The Dukes of Hazzard_ and her brother had purchased the car for her. Chad had discovered a couple weeks ago that Sonny was working on fixing up "General Grant" as a tribute to the Dukes' own "General Lee," minus the Confederate flag, of course, when he caught her working under the hood after hours one day. He'd stopped to talk to her and ended up helping her fix the transmission as she told him about her brother's own car, a black Trans Am not unlike the one from her brother's favorite movie.

That day, she had looked happy and cute (even if she _was_ covered in car gunk. Not that Chad thought Sonny was cute. Because he _didn't_), but today… Well, the fact that _Chad_ of all people was stopping to ask Sonny what was wrong should suffice as an explanation as to _why_ he was stopping.

When he knocked on the window a second time, Sonny finally rolled down the window and looked out at him dourly. For a second, Chad kind of regretted bothering her, but decided that _somebody_ had to ask the Wisconsin funny girl what was wrong and just smiled at her.

"Morning, Sonny!" he frowned as he heard the music floating from her crackling speakers. "What is that _noise_?"

Sonny sighed and rolled her eyes before she turned down the music and cut the engine. "It's Owl City, Chad," she told him curtly, then rolled up her window. Chad was about to protest when Sonny opened the door (which made such a loud squeaking noise that Chad actually cringed) and stepped out. "What do you want?" she asked.

Chad shrugged. "I was just walking into the studio and noticed you seemed kinda sad and all curled up in your seat. Something wrong?"

Sonny blinked at him, seemingly taken aback, slammed the loudly protesting door and then locked it, slinging her purse over her shoulder. She stared at him for a moment before asking, "Why do you care?" and starting to walk away.

"I don't," Chad said quickly as he hurried to catch up to her.

Sonny scoffed.

"Are you going to tell me or not?"

"I don't see why I should."

"Because now I _have_ to know." He smirked, but Sonny didn't play along. Instead, she wrenched open the studio doors and started marching toward her dressing room.

"Son_ny_!" Chad whined as he followed in her footsteps. She wasn't even _looking_ at him! This wasn't normal. "Tell me!"

"No, Chad."

"Tell me!"

"No."

"Tell me!"

"No!"

"Tell-"

The duo came to a halt outside the door to the dressing room the comedienne shared with her blonde costar and Sonny whirled around to face him. She actually looked a little more than livid, an emotion that Chad had never seen fill her eyes before. He took a step back, shocked.

"Chad, I'm _really_ not in the mood for this right now," Sonny said quietly. "_Please_. Just…leave me alone." With that said, she opened the door to her dressing room, stepped inside, and let the door swing shut behind her. Chad found himself face-to-face with a bold, black, capital 's.'

* * *

**December 16th**

**12:34 p.m.**

**Condor Studios Commissary**

He couldn't help but notice that Sonny was still miserable at lunch. She was sitting at the _So Random!_ table, dragging her fork through the muck on her plate and ignoring the blonde Barbie wannabe across from her.

Not that he was looking for her!

No, he just happened to notice as he was passing by her table on his way to get his own four-star meal.

Reluctantly, Chad poked the guy in front of him in the shoulder. Nico Harris turned around with a smile that faded to a look of disgust when he saw who was trying to get his attention.

"Hey, brah!"

Nico raised an unenthused eyebrow. "What do you want, Chip Drama Pants?"

They shuffled forward a few steps as the line moved a bit.

"What's wrong with Sonny, dude?" Chad demanded quietly. He couldn't have other people hearing him asking after Sonny Munroe's wellbeing (especially Portlyn; he couldn't risk another forehead full of rug burn).

"Why do _you_ care?"

"Oh, I _don't_."

Nico snorted and plucked a tray from the stack on the end of the counter. "Yeah, man, that's _real_ convincing."

"Seriously, dude," Chad persisted, "what's wrong with her? She's not all perky and annoying today." He picked up his own tray as they moved forward.

The comedian sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you. But you didn't hear it from me."

"Of course."

"Well, from what I gather, Sonny's mom left on a month-long business trip this morning."

"So?"

"_So_," Nico stressed the word, glaring darkly over his shoulder at Chad, "poor girl ain't got nowhere to go for Christmas. After filming wraps up today, she's stuck here by herself."

"Can't she go home?"

"She tried to find a flight, but they're all booked."

"Every single flight to _Wisconsin_ is _booked_?"

"I know, right?" Nico chuckled quietly. "Kinda weird."

"So why don't one of you _Randoms_ do something with her?" Chad asked, honestly curious. Sonny was always going on and on about how the cast of _So Random!_ was like a family. If that was true, then why weren't any of them doing something with her?

The line moved forward another couple of steps; Chad could see One-Eyed Brenda doling out scoops of what looked like dog food to members of casts that weren't from _Mackenzie Falls._

"I tried," Nico replied. "But my parents decided to surprise me and my little sister with a cruise to Hawaii."

"What about the others?"

The _So Random!_ actor was looking at him kind of oddly now, but Chad ignored the look.

"Grady's Jewish-"

"Jewish?" Chad raised an eyebrow; Nico ignored the question.

"Zora's family celebrates the winter solstice-"

"The _what?_"

"Boy, don't you pay attention in school?" Nico shook his head disdainfully and then continued. "Anyway, even though Tawni and Sonny are gettin' along right now, doesn't mean Tawni's willin' to give up her ski trip to hang out with her." He shrugged. "Poor girl's stranded here for a month." Nico turned back around, and just like that, it was like the two rivals had never even had a conversation.

Chad felt a pang of…something as he glanced over his shoulder at the miserable brunette at the _So Random!_ table. He brushed it off, though, and stepped up to One-Eyed Brenda with a charming smile on his face.

_Mmm…turkey!_ he thought, a greedy glint to his eyes as he accepted his plate of food.

* * *

**December 16th**

**7:28 p.m.**

**Condor Studios Parking Lot**

The studio door had just swung shut behind Chad when his phone started ringing in his pocket. He answered it without checking the caller I.D.

"C.D.C.! What can ya do for me?"

"Hi, Chaddy Bear!"

Chad almost groaned as his mother's voice flooded the speaker. As much as he loved his mother, and as much of a mama's boy as he was, the nickname was just a little too much.

"Hey, Mom."

"Are you done filming, honey?" she asked, her voice as sweet as only a mother's could be.

"Yup." Chad started across the parking lot to where his car was parked. He noticed that Sonny's was still in the lot as well, and he paused on a patch of grass to watch for a second. "General Grant's" driver's side door was open.

"That's great! Are you coming home tonight, then?"

"Mom, I told you that I'm not coming home until _next_ Wednesday, remember?" Chad said patiently but distractedly as he watched Sonny emerge frustrated from her car and lift the hood. A small beam of light flashed through the relative darkness of the parking lot, and Chad realized that his favorite _Random_ was having car troubles.

"Oh, well I just thought you might come home a bit earlier. That _is_ the day before Christmas Eve…" Mrs. Cooper's voice trailed off, and Chad could tell she was trying to manipulate his mama's boy tendencies.

"I know, Mom. I've just got some stuff to take care of, you know?"

"I know, sweetie. I just thought it'd be nice to have you home for a bit longer this year…"

Chad tuned his mother out as he started walking slowly toward Sonny. He wanted to end the conversation with his mom before he approached the depressed girl. Sonny thought he was cool; cool did not include having conversations over the phone with your mother.

"…bringing home your girlfriend?"

"What?" Chad halted in his footsteps, confused.

"Well, I'm looking at the latest issue of _Tween Weekly_-" Chad slapped a hand to his forehead "-and it says here that you're dating that adorable girl from _So Random!_ What's her name?"

Chad heard the flipping of flimsy pages over the phone. "Sonny Munroe?" he offered up weakly.

"That's the one!" his mother exclaimed excitedly.

"Mom, I'm not-"

"Oh, honey, your daddy and I are just so excited to meet her!" Chad cringed. "She's seems like such a lovely girl-"

"Mom!"

"You should really bring her home to meet the family," his mother insisted.

"Mom, I don't think Sonny would-"

"Well, does she have any other plans?"

"Well, no but-"

"Good! Bring her home!"

Chad sighed. "I'll see what I can do," he muttered. "Talk to you later, Mom."

"Bye-bye, Chaddy Bear!"

The blonde actor snapped his phone shut and slid it back into his pocket, schooling his features into a calm, collected smirk as he once again started off towards Sonny. He knocked on the fender to alert her of his presence. She looked up at him and smiled softly.

"Hey, Chad."

"Hey, Munroe. Need a jump?"

* * *

**December 23rd**

**5:46 p.m.**

**Chad's Car**

The sleek, black convertible sped off the exit at least fifteen miles over the legal speed limit. It weaved deftly in and out of cars as the driver and his passenger zoomed towards their destination. The license plates read 'IM CHAD,' something Sonny had snorted at when she saw the car pull into the space next to the General. Chad was so ridiculously full of himself. She looked over at him as they came to a stop at a stoplight. He was drumming his fingers anxiously on the steering wheel, his mouth folded into a slight frown.

"Remind me again why I'm doing this?" she asked, loud enough to be heard over his weird choice in music (Chad was into _really_ alternative music). She saw him smirk ever so slightly and shake his head.

"Number one: you _owe me_, Munroe." He reached over and turned the knob on the car's stereo; the volume of his music lessened quite a bit as a result. Sonny rolled her eyes at his answer and felt her body press itself involuntarily into the seat as the light turned from red to green and Chad slammed his foot on the gas pedal. "Number two," he continued, guiding the car around a corner, "my mom… Well, she… She's really gullible and she'll believe anything in print. Even if it's fake. It's not her fault, really, but…"

"You're just so much of a mama's boy that you can't bear to disappoint her?" Sonny teased.

"I'm not a mama's boy, Munroe," Chad growled, a dusting of pink spreading across his cheeks.

Sonny shrugged, grinning at him. "It's okay if you are, you know. My brother's a mama's boy; he admits it."

"Well, I'm not your brother."

"Thank God for _that_," Sonny mumbled.

They were coming to a stop now outside some sort of fancy gated community. Sonny hadn't even noticed where they were going, but here they were most likely a minute or two away from Chad's house. The brunette's heart started slamming against her rib cage and she suddenly felt a bit queasy.

Chad rolled down his window and a gust of cool air swept into the car, calming Sonny's churning stomach as she breathed it in.

"Hey, Arthur," the blonde jerkthrob was saying, "I'm here to see my parents. I've got my friend Sonny Munroe with me."

Sonny didn't hear Arthur's response, but Chad saluted the guard and rolled up his window as the iron gate disappeared into the ground. Suddenly, her stomach was back to knotting itself up.

"Nervous?" Chad questioned as he navigated the car up a steep hill and around a couple of turns.

"A little," she said truthfully.

Chad smiled at her, and she could tell that it was one of his rare genuine smiles. "Don't be," he replied. "My parents are really nice people. Dad's a physicist and Mom's a one-time-model-turned-homemaker. They don't really do the whole Hollywood thing. Believe it or not, the people who spawned _me_ are normal."

"Their house isn't normal," Sonny said, her eyes widening at the sight of the house looming before her.

The blonde chuckled. "That's because I bought it for them."

"You bought your parents a _house_?"

"…Is that weird?"

Sonny didn't respond. Instead, she gaped at the house before her, marveling at its blatant grandness. It was entirely made of warm red bricks with shutters and trim of a crisp forest green. Bushes and trees lined the gravel driveway and the front walkway, and Sonny could see empty flowerbeds in parts of the oddly green yard. White Christmas lights twinkled along the gutters and sparkled in the bare tree branches. The front porch was wrapped in garland.

As Chad put the car into park, the front door opened and two people emerged from the extravagant house. Sonny took a deep breath before opening the car door and stepping out into the cool early evening air. She hovered anxiously behind Chad as he pulled their bags from the trunk of the car, argued with him quietly over being allowed to carry her own bag, and then followed him up the path as soon as she won the argument.

* * *

**December 23rd**

**8:21 p.m.**

**Guest Bedroom**

Whether or not Sonny was shocked to discover that his parents were just like any normal person's, Chad might never know. What he did know that Sonny was somewhat awestruck by the grandeur of the house. The foyer was quite worthy of wonder, he thought, but the rest of the house was just like anybody else's…wasn't it?

Chad had heard a gasp escape his friend's mouth as they were ushered through the front door by his mom and dad. He once thought that the sweeping, slightly curved staircase that sat on the left side of the two story entrance, the marble floors, the natural stone arch that led to the great room, the sparkling chandelier, and the fire crackling merrily in its hearth were all normal occurrences in homes. Sonny's awestruck reaction convinced him otherwise. Maybe those things were normal in the gated community where his house sat, but it was painfully obvious the variety show starlet had roots that were anywhere _but_ here.

So as he watched her reaction to the room his mom had set aside for her, he wasn't surprised. Really, it was just a girly, blue and brown, professionally decorated room, but as he watched Sonny trail her fingertips over the bedspread and the top of the mahogany dresser, he couldn't help but smile from where he leaned against the door frame.

"So I take it you could stand staying in this room," Chad stated, his smile widening a fraction.

"Are you kidding me?" Sonny said sounding breathless. She turned to face him, a grin lighting up her eyes. "It's _gorgeous_. I might pretend to be your girlfriend more often if I get spoiled like this," she teased.

Chad snorted. "Good luck with that, Sunshine. This is the last time I fake date you."

"Yeah, we said that _last_ time, Chad. Now look what you've gotten us into."

"Hey!" Chad exclaimed. "Last time was all _your_ fault. I'm just getting my rightful payback."

"If it's payback, then how come it took you three months to get it?" Sonny shot back.

"Because I didn't need it until now! Now, are we going to watch a movie or not?"

"Fine!" Sonny said, stomping towards the door and brushing past him. "We'll go watch a movie!"

Chad gaped at her retreating back. "Fine!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

Together, the duo stormed towards the back staircase (something Sonny marveled at when Chad was giving her a tour of the house), both equally livid on the surface but laughing at their stupid argument on the inside. Chad smiled to himself as their hands brushed and Sonny blushed.

* * *

**December 24th**

**8:41 a.m.**

**Christmas Eve**

**Guest Bedroom**

Sonny woke up to ice blue walls and a mahogany sleigh bed, confused for a moment as to where she was and why she was waking up there. Then she remembered that she was returning the same favor Chad had paid her three months prior, only she seemed to be going to a lot more trouble than she had put him through.

Her cell phone was ringing a cheerful Christmas carol, and she hurried to answer it, her voice coming out more groggy and sleep-filled than she had anticipated.

"Hello…?"

"Sonny?"

"…Mom?"

The woman on the other line snorted. "Doubtful."

"Tawni?" Sonny guessed.

"No-o."

"Zora?"

"Once again: definitely not."

Sonny groaned and flopped back onto the luxurious bed. "Ugh! Whoever this is, quit trying to make me guess your identity! It's too early!"

"Sonny, it's me: Lucy!"

"Lucy! Oh, my gosh. Hi!"

"Hey." Now that Sonny knew who the person on the other line was, she had to wonder how she didn't realize it was Lucy to begin with. "I was just calling to make sure you were coming to my party tonight. You didn't R.S.V.P. online, so I thought I'd call you to make sure you'd be here."

Sonny sighed deeply. "Oh, Luce, I'm so sorry. I'm not in Wisconsin. My mom left on a month-long business trip and I got stranded here for the holidays."

"What? But you've _never_ missed my Christmas Eve party!" Lucy exclaimed. Sonny could practically see her friend's frown.

"I know, Lucy. And I'm really sorry. If it makes you feel _any_ better, I'm not having much fun. I'm at-"

At that exact moment, Sonny's bedroom door flew open, and Chad bounded into the room, a large, uncharacteristic smile on his face.

"Merry Christmas Eve, Sonny!"

Sonny shrieked and threw a pillow at him, smirking when it smacked him in the face. "Oh, my God, Chad! Have you never heard of _knocking?!"_ She heard Lucy squeal in excitement on the other end of the line.

"Oh, my God! Are you spending Christmas with Chad Dylan Cooper? Sonny! That's _so cool!"_

Sonny ducked as Chad threw the pillow back at her and then threw another at him. The first fell short of Chad's target and flopped pitifully on the bed.

"Ow! Sonny, quit throwing pillows at me!"

"Learn to knock, Chad! Lucy, can I call you back?" Sonny hung up her phone without waiting for a reply, ducked the second pillow, and threw a third. Chad caught it, looking taken aback.

"What was _that_ for, Munroe?"

"You just barged into my room, Cooper! That's impolite! What, do they not have _manners_ in Jerkaslovakia?"

"It's my house," Chad shot back. "I can do what I want! Are you getting out of bed or not? Mom made pancakes and we've got a tree to decorate before everyone gets here for the party."

"Party?"

"Yeah."

"What party?"

"The Christmas party my parents have every year. Didn't I tell you about it?"

"Obviously _not_," Sonny said.

"Oh." Chad shrugged. "My bad. Now, come on," he clapped his hands, "get your butt out of bed and come downstairs." With that said, he disappeared, slamming the door behind himself.

Sonny sighed in mild disgust then rummaged through her suitcase for some clothes. She couldn't believe that _Chad_ of all people had seen her Captain Jack Sparrow pajamas. Her face flushed and she quickly shimmed out of the pajamas and into a pair of jeans and an off white sweater before following the smell of pancakes down to the kitchen.

Chad and his mom were nowhere in sight, but Mr. Cooper was sitting at the breakfast table, a stack of syrup-soaked pancakes to his right and a large smattering of papers to his left. He was sipping at a mug of what smelled like coffee and scribbling on one of the papers.

"Good morning, Mr. Cooper," Sonny said.

He looked at her over the rims of his glasses perfunctorily before mumbling, "Good morning, Sonny," and returning to his work.

Sonny took two pancakes off the stack on the granite countertop, poured herself a glass of orange juice that she found in the fridge, and then sat down across from Mr. Cooper, feeling somewhat awkward. One of the papers caught her eye, and she picked it up.

"This is Ohm's Law," she exclaimed.

The blonde man slowly set down his pencil and looked up at her. "You know what Ohm's Law is?"

Sonny smiled brightly. "My brother was an astrophysics major before he switched colleges." She took a bite of pancakes before continuing. "He taught me the basics of the law. Doesn't it state that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference or voltage across the two points, and inversely proportional to the resistance between them?"

Mr. Cooper looked partially amused and partially impressed. "Ohm's Law is a bit advanced for a high school student, isn't it?"

Sonny's smile turned sheepish. "Well, to be honest, I didn't really understand it. Math and science aren't my strongest points, but I saw enough of my brother's homework to recognize _some_ parts of physics."

"Dang, Munroe."

Sonny noticed Mr. Cooper's eyes jump to the doorway and she turned around to see Chad leaning against the frame (what was it with him and leaning against doorways?), looking more impressed than his father had.

"Gorgeous _and_ smart. Huh. Who knew?"

Sonny blushed and returned her attention to the remains of the pancakes on her plate.

"She's a good one, Chad."

"Don't I know it," Chad replied, sitting down at the table and stealing Sonny's orange juice with a smirk. "Nothing like the other girls you run into in Hollywood. 'Course, the first time I met her, she was wearing a fat suit, so that's pretty much a given. Any girl that willingly wears a fat suit in Hollywood is bound to be a bit different."

Sonny made a face at Chad and then took her empty plate over to the sink, snatching the orange juice back from the soap actor along her way.

"I was drinking that, Sonny!"

"Yeah, well, I was drinking it first," Sonny shot back, downing the rest of the drink and trying to ignore the fact that she'd most likely just basically swapped spit (however indirectly) with _Chad._

"Whatever. You coming to decorate with us, Dad?"

"I've got some more work to finish up, I'll stop by to see the finished product before the party starts. You kids have fun."

* * *

**December 24th**

**12:16 p.m.**

**Christmas Eve**

**Great Room**

Mrs. Cooper gasped in delight as she stepped into the room. Sonny smiled in response, knowing that she'd done her job well. The tree was sparkling with hundreds of fairy-like lights (it was a tall tree) and the fashionable ornaments were hanging precariously from the branches. The ribbon and beads Chad said were meant to be garland were used precisely for that purpose, and swathed the tree in perfect stripes.

Normal garland framed the doorways and windows, lights twinkling in the piney depths. Sonny and Chad were busy tacking the last of it up.

"Chaddy Bear! The room looks _wonderful!_"

Sonny snorted and raised an amused eyebrow at Chad. _Chaddy Bear?_ she mouthed. Chad sneered at her as if to say _Shut up, Munroe._

"Actually, Mom, Sonny did most of it."

Sonny's other eyebrow joined the first. First Chad complimented her and then he didn't steal her spotlight? He must've _really_ been in the Christmas spirit.

…Or he was plotting something.

She squinted at the back of his head. Something was up…

"Well, whoever did this did a fantastic job," Mrs. Cooper said. She smiled at the teens. "Do you guys want to decorate Christmas cookies?"

Chad was about to complain that they were too old to decorate Christmas cookies when Sonny cheerfully chirped, "Sure!" She skipped out of the room after Chad's mom, snagging up his hand and pulling him along with her.

And that was how Chad found himself decorating hundreds of cookies of different varieties. Sonny was chatting away to his mom about Christmases in Wisconsin and some party she was missing. Somehow, he found himself paying attention, not really knowing why.

"Every year, my friend Lucy has this _amazing_ Christmas Eve party. It's one of those white elephant parties. You know the ones where everybody brings a weird present and you have to draw numbers and hope nobody takes the present you want? It's really fun! After the present part, the girls go caroling and then we meet back up with the guys at the park for a snowball fight…"

Chad started icing a pirate outfit onto a gingerbread man. Not exactly a Christmas-y kind of cookie, but who said it had to be? It's not like anybody would care anyway. A majority of the adults would be liquored up and the small amount of kids that would be there would either be crashed or too hopped on sugar to care what their gingerbread men were dressed up as.

All of Sonny's cookies were decorated in red and green frosting and sprinkles and lined up neatly on their trays. He noticed she would occasionally go back and straighten out any of the cookies that had managed to escape from their orderly rows and wondered if she was a perfectionist. She didn't seem like the type of person who would be.

As his mother and the brunette talked, Chad kept quiet and iced all of his cookies so that they didn't conform to Christmas standards, occasionally sneaking a glance at his dad's abandoned place at the breakfast table. It didn't surprise him that his dad wasn't participating in the festivities (he never really did), but it bothered Chad this year. He'd gone through the trouble of convincing Sonny that she owed him for saving her butt with the James Conroy thing, brought her home as his fake girlfriend to meet his parents, and then his dad spent the entire time working. The only time he'd shown interest in Sonny was with that whole "Ohm's Law" thing.

Before he knew it, Chad was surrounded by family members and trays of food that were circulating the room slowly. His aunt Liza was drunkenly singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as his mom accompanied her on the piano, a couple of seconds behind. Little kids were either zonked out on the couches or running around the house. Somewhere in the chaos, he'd lost Sonny and was starting to fear for her life. It was either fend for yourself or die at the annual Cooper Christmas party. He noticed a girl disappear out the front door and squeezed past his cousin who was making out with a family friend under the mistletoe to follow her, thinking that the girl's dress looked an awful lot like Sonny's.

Sure enough, Sonny was sitting on the porch steps, her jacket wrapped around her shoulders and her breath puffing out into the night air. Chad pulled a flat, wrapped box out his jacket pocket and balanced it on her knee before sitting down beside her on the step.

"We said no presents, Chad. That was part of the deal."

"I know. I figured it's the least I could do after putting you through that." He jerked his head toward the house.

Sonny smiled slightly. "Yeah. You have very…enthusiastic aunts."

Chad grimaced, remembering the toasting that Aunt Liza had started when his mom introduced Sonny as "Chaddy Bear's girlfriend." It hadn't been pretty, but it _had_ been embarrassing.

"You're talking to one of the kids who grew up with them."

She laughed, and Chad smiled.

"So am I allowed to open this?" she asked, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

"That's typically what you're supposed to do with a present."

Sonny giggled again and slid her finger under the edge up the wrapping paper, unwrapping the present so that the paper came away in one piece. Chad quirked an eyebrow. Maybe she _was_ a perfectionist. She set the paper aside and opened the box.

"Do you like it?" Chad asked worriedly when she didn't say anything. "I thought you might. I mean, you're _Sonny_ and it's a _sun_. I didn't know…" The grin she sent his way made him trail off.

"I've always wanted a charm bracelet," Sonny said matter-of-factly. She held out the bracelet and her wrist. "Will you help me put it on?"

Chad did so, hoping that she wouldn't notice the way his fingers trembled as they brushed over the soft skin of the inside of her wrist. The sun-shaped charm winked at them in the soft glow of the Christmas lights.

"Thank you."

To his surprise, Sonny leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Chad blinked at her, at a complete loss of words. Sonny Munroe had just kissed him on the cheek! He swallowed. Man, he really hoped Portlyn wouldn't find out about this. Sonny was the enemy, he wasn't supposed to be spending time with her. If Portlyn found out, she'd sit on him again and remind him that he could "do so much better than _Munroe_" (something Chad really was starting to doubt). He glanced down at his watch then smiled up at Sonny.

"Merry Christmas, Sonny," he said softly, showing Sonny that both hands of the watch were pointing to twelve.

Sonny smiled back. "Merry Christmas, Chad."

* * *

If you want to see Sonny's car (or what it would look like once she had it fixed up), go to Google images and search "general lee dukes of hazzard 1969." If you want to see Sonny's brother's car, go to Google images and search "smokey and the bandit trans am 1977."

Not all chapters will be this long, but you can expect some of them to be lengthy. I don't know what happened here. It kind of got away from me. I hope you liked this chapter though!

I've got my best friend's graduation party to go to today, and I know I'll be there until I have to go home to make curfew, so I don't know how much writing I'll get done, but hopefully I'll have another update for you on Monday!

As always, reviews are appreciated! Especially when chapters are this long, haha. I love hearing from you guys, so don't hold back! Tell me what you liked, what you hated, what you want more of, what you could stand to see less of… Anything and everything!

Love,

EmbracingRain


	3. Month Two: New Year's Breakup

A/N: Hey, guys! Welcome back to _Twelve Months!_ The closet chapter isn't next chapter, but the one after that. That's when we finally meet the dreadful Great Aunt Marietta. Right now, though, let's see if Chad and Sonny can manage to convince Chad's relatives that they're done with each other.

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Two

New Year's Breakup

* * *

**December 31st**

**2:17 a.m.**

**New Year's Eve**

**Sonny's Apartment**

_Moo._

Sonny Munroe sighed and rolled over in her sleep. Her apartment was blissfully silent, though the streets outside were filled with the aftereffects of the Christmas season and the cheerfulness of the early morning hours of New Year's Eve.

_Moo._

One pale hand (a hand Tawni would say was badly in need of a spray tan) swept out from underneath the covers and knocked the mooing cell phone off Sonny's bed in one fell swoop.

_Moo. Moooooo._

Sonny groaned and sat up in bed, bending over the side to pick up the phone. Once it was safely in her hand, she pressed the talk button and secured the phone to her ear.

"H'llo?" she croaked in a groggy voice.

"Sonny! Why haven't you answered? I've been calling you for an hour!"

Sonny peeled the phone away from her ear and looked at it before returning to her conversation. "Chad?"

"Who _else_? Jeez, Munroe," Chad's cocky voice rang loud and clear over the line.

Rolling out of bed, Sonny slipped her feet into her fuzzy slippers and then padded out of her room and into the kitchen, saying as she walked, "Chad. It's two-twenty in the morning. What reason could you _possibly_ have to be calling me?" she pulled a glass from the cabinet by the fridge and got some water from the tap.

"It's New Year's Eve, I can't call my friend?"

"I wasn't aware that you and I were friends," Sonny said dryly. "Christmas didn't really change anything, did it?"

There were a few moments of silence on the other end of the line, moments in which Sonny took the opportunity to drink her glass of water. She kind of wondered if she had offended Chad in some way, but when he started talking again, his voice was more pompous than ever.

"Well, whatever we are, you're doing me another favor."

At that, Sonny shrieked with laughter until her stomach ached and tears leaked from her eyes. She dumped the rest of her water down the drain and set her glass in the sink.

"I'm sorry, Chad," she said, her voice breathy. "I thought you just said I was going to do you another favor."

"It's not a laughing matter, Sonny," Chad snapped.

"Well you can just forget it. I already did you a favor. You fake dated me; I fake dated you. We're officially even. End of story."

"No, it's _not_," Chad insisted. "Listen to me, Sonny. You did your job too well."

"What are you talking about?" Sonny queried, hopping onto the counter and swinging her feet through the air. The clock on the stove advanced from two twenty-five to two twenty-six.

"My parents _love_ you."

"So?"

"So they want you to come to our New Year's party tonight," Chad reported.

"_They_ want me to come, or _you_ want me to come?" Sonny said snidely.

Chad scoffed. "Oh, believe me. If my mom hadn't asked me to ask you, I _wouldn't have_, Munroe."

"Oh, that's right! I almost forgot that you're a total mama's boy. I'm sorry, Chad. I didn't mean to."

She heard the star of _Mackenzie Falls_ sigh and her heart softened the tiniest bit. Chad didn't just go around asking people for favors. He _demanded_ favors like he was doing now, but he usually didn't sound so desperate. But still… If Chad wanted her to do him any favors, he was going to have to learn how to be nice.

"Sonny, come on. How often do I ask you for favors?"

"Never," Sonny said bitterly.

"Exactly-"

"Let me finish, Chad!" she bit out. "You never _ask_ for favors. You always _demand_ things of people. And I think I speak for everybody when I say that I'm _tired_ of being told what to do. I'm a person, Chad, just like everyone else. We attempt to treat you fairly, so you should be doing the same for us.

"I don't want to be mean, but until you can learn to _ask_ things of me instead of ordering me around, I won't be doing you any favors. I don't care how much your parents like me and how much you don't want to disappoint your mom. Goodnight."

Hanging up her phone, Sonny pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers, hopped off the counter and shuffled over to another cabinet from which she plucked a bottle of asprin. She hadn't meant to, but she'd lost her temper with Chad (she was always pretty grumpy in the mornings), and losing her temper had given her a terrible headache. After swallowing two of the pain relievers, Sonny crossed the apartment back to her room where she curled up under the covers and fell asleep within a matter of minutes.

* * *

**December 31st**

**12:15 p.m.**

**New Year's Eve**

**The General Grant**

Sonny shifted the General into the correct gear as she exited the highway at the exact speed limit, checking her mirrors in an almost-paranoid manner. Cops scared the living daylights out of her, and she knew they would be out in full force today. It was New Year's Eve, after all.

She turned right at the stoplight and found her way to the curving back road that led to the ominous iron gate and guardhouse. Taking a deep breath and pressing her foot to the brake, Sonny rolled down her window and smiled out at the guard.

"Hi, I'm here for the Coopers' party," she said, her confidence wavering for just a second.

"Lil' early aincha?"

Sonny's smile disappeared for a split second. "Yeah, I know. I'm actually," here, she swallowed hard and her grin became a bit forced, "d-dating their son. My name is Sonny Munroe."

"Yer the gal from the Crissmiss party aincha?"

"Yes, sir. That's me."

The guard smiled at her rather toothily. "Well! You go right on through, lil' missy! I was told you wasn't gonna be comin' tonigh'. I'll call the missus an' tell her yer headin' up to the house right now. I know the boy ain't home right now. He done gone out to get some of that eggnog for his mama. Him's a good 'un, Miss Sonny. You don't go lettin' him get away now, ya hear?"

Sonny chuckled forcefully and gave the friendly (and strangely Southern) guard an awkward thumbs up. "Loud and clear, sir."

The guard closed his window and Sonny rolled up her own as the iron gate disappeared into the ground. She drove over the gap in the ground smoothly and, after a couple of wrong turns, found her way to the giant brick house she had left barely six days ago. The Christmas lights were still wrapped around the trees, but Sonny got the impression that they had only been left up as party decorations. Mrs. Cooper was standing on the lawn, waving eagerly as Sonny pulled into the driveway, her red hair bright and coppery in the December sunlight; Sonny rolled down her window and slowed to a stop.

"Hi, Mrs. Cooper!"

"Welcome back, sweetie," the woman replied, hurrying over to where her son's "girlfriend" had stopped. "Why don't you park in the garage around back? There's an empty bay. You won't have to worry about your car getting hit by one of the relatives tonight."

"Sounds good," Sonny said instead of what she really wanted to say (which was, "Well, the car's pretty much a pile anyway. There's no way it could get worse. Don't let me take up your space.").

The Coopers' garage was a brick mimicry of a large barn, and the doors (one of which was standing open) even imitated barn doors both in style and in function. Sonny pulled into the open bay, parked her car, snatched up her purse, and then exited the garage to find Chad's mom waiting for her.

"Hi, Sonny dear," Mrs. Cooper said, folding the brunette up in a hug that Sonny returned awkwardly. "We weren't expecting you! Chad said you had other plans tonight."

Sonny shrugged as she followed the redheaded woman up to the front door. "I did, but I cancelled them."

Mrs. Cooper shot her a confused glance. "You cancelled a funeral?"

"…A funeral?"

"Yes. Chad said you were going to a funeral."

Chad's excuse was that she had a _funeral_ to go to? The boy really needed to learn how to improvise. For being such a good liar, Chad had royally screwed with _this _one.

"Oh! Right!" Sonny exclaimed, deciding to improvise herself. "The funeral was for… Tawni's turtle!"

"A funeral for a…turtle?"

"Yeah, Tawni's turtle. She was really attached to him. His name was Mr. Tuttle," Sonny babbled, crossing her fingers behind her back in the hopes that Mrs. Cooper would buy the story. Chad _had_ said that his mother was gullible. Though Sonny did feel uncomfortable taking advantage of that particular trait.

"Well, that's the first I've heard of a funeral for a turtle of all things," Mrs. Cooper said, giggling slightly. Sonny breathed a sigh of relief as she followed the woman into the house. "Are you sure you shouldn't have gone to help your friend through this hard time?"

"Um…well… See, we managed to convince Tawni that having a funeral would only make it hurt more. We don't want her to suffer." Sonny toed off her shoes and hung her purse on the coat rack, feeling ashamed of herself.

"Aren't you just the sweetheart?" Mrs. Cooper cooed, smiling at Sonny in a motherly way. "Did you already eat lunch?"

Sonny nodded.

"Okay. Well, we're not doing much today. My husband is still working on his project and I've got some cooking to do, so you have the TV all to yourself for now."

"Are you sure you don't need help cooking?" Sonny asked.

"Oh, I'm fine. You just make yourself at home," Chad's mother replied before bustling off to the kitchen.

Left to her own devices, Sonny wandered into the great room where the flat screen television was waiting for her. She flopped down on one of the leather couches and picked up the remote, hitting the power button. She scrolled through the guide until stumbling upon a _So Random!_ marathon, a show she happily selected.

* * *

**December 31st**

**12:45 p.m.**

**New Year's Eve**

**The Coopers' House**

Chad whistled tunelessly as he entered the mud room on the side of the house, kicking off his shoes on his way into the kitchen where he kissed his mom on the cheek and set the two cartons of eggnog she'd requested on the counter.

"Hi, Mom."

His mom replied in a distracted manner, and Chad decided to leave so he wouldn't bother her. Granny Cooper was coming over tonight and Mom was probably on her way to panic mode by now. He pushed through the swinging door and stepped into the great room, confused. The TV was on and a pair of small, sock-covered feet were dangling over the arm of the couch.

Sonny and Blondie were on the screen and they were dressed in tacky Hawaiian shirts with matching visors. They looked like they were supposed to be a matching set of something, and they were being annoying as hell.

"Check it out! I got a manicure!" Blondie shrieked.

"Ooooh! Check me out checking out your manicure!" Sonny exclaimed. "Check out that hot surfer."

"Check out his board shorts."

"Check out his six pack."

"Check me out checking out his six pack!"

"Check it out, he's coming this way!"

Blondie squealed. "Check me out checking him out coming this way!"

The person on the couch giggled and Chad's eyes bugged out of his head. He knew that giggle. He would know that giggle _anywhere_. That was the giggle of…

"_Sonny?!"_

She sat up with a cheerful smile spreading across her lips. "Hey, Chad. Took you a while to get back."

"Sonny, what are you _doing_ here?" Chad hissed. "You're supposed to be at a _funeral!_"

Sonny snorted. "Yeah, thanks for that by the way. Because of _that_ lame excuse, I had to tell your mom it was a funeral for Tawni's turtle, Mr. Tuttle!"

"Tawni's turtle, Mr. Tuttle?"

"Yes!"

"Tawni doesn't have a turtle!"

"Well, not anymore," Sonny shot back, her arms akimbo.

"She never did in the first place!"

"Well, when _some_ people don't improvise well, there's not much that the rest of us can do to help." Sonny turned back to the TV, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

"You're blaming this on me?" Chad demanded, rounding the side of the couch to stand in front of the brunette actress.

Sonny looked up at him. "It _is_ your fault. You're the one who lied."

"You're the one who wouldn't come to the party," Chad retorted.

"You're the one who demanded instead of asking," Sonny said calmly, returning her gaze to the television in front of her.

Chad spluttered, looking for words that he knew he'd never be able to find. Instead of saying something relatively intelligent, the blonde shouted, "Fine!"

And, to Chad's immense disappointment, Sonny looked at him in a completely unenthused manner and went, "Chad, it's a new year. How 'bout we make a joint resolution to never have a stupid fight again?"

Chad sat down on the couch, staring at Sonny with his mouth hanging open. "No!"

She sighed and muted the television. "I'm sorry, but…what?"

"No!" Chad repeated. He could feel his cheeks flushing a brilliant crimson color. "I _like_ our stupid fights! They define _us_, Sonny!"

"Yes," Sonny said slowly, "but are we six years old, Chad? I know for a fact that I'm not; I'm seventeen. And you're not six. You're…" She trailed off, looking thoughtful. "How old _are_ you?"

"Eighteen in February," Chad responded.

"'Eighteen in February' is not an age, doofus," Sonny said. "'Eighteen in February' is how old you _will_ be. As in, 'I'll be eighteen in February.'"

"Why do you have to be so picky, Munroe?"

"I'm not picky!" Sonny gasped, sounding offended.

Chad was saved having to respond by the loud chime of the doorbell. He tore his eyes off the brunette next to him and stared at the front door with wide, frightened eyes.

"Oh, dear God," he whispered, grabbing Sonny's hand. "Act like my girlfriend, Munroe."

Sonny snatched her hand away. "I'm sorry, Chad. Did you learn _nothing_ from this morning's phone call?"

Chad groaned. He couldn't honestly believe that Sonny was being serious about that whole 'asking for favors' thing. He was Chad Dylan Cooper! He was _not_ that demanding! The doorbell rang again and he reluctantly stuck his hand out.

"Sonny. _Please_. Just be my fake date one more time," he wheedled. "Please? I'm asking you from one friend to another."

Sonny sighed but slipped her hand into his and scooted closer to him on the couch just before Mrs. Cooper dashed through the room to answer the door, looking rather frazzled. As she turned the volume back up on the TV, Sonny whispered, "I have two conditions to this fake date, Cooper."

Feeling as though he might regret finding out what said conditions were, Chad motioned for Sonny to continue talking.

"Number one, we break up this fake relationship at the end of the party," Sonny said, keeping her eyes riveted to the _So Random!_ marathon.

"And number two?"

"You owe me one, Cooper. Fair's fair. I owed you a fake date, now you owe me one."

And as soon as Chad nodded his agreement (however reluctant it was), Granny Cooper descended on them like a pack of loveable wolves packed into one tiny, ancient body.

* * *

**December 31st**

**11:55 p.m.**

**New Year's Eve**

**The Coopers' House**

Sonny wound her way through the drunken sea of Chad's relatives and family friends (she'd never met a group of people who liked to party more than this particular set), dead set on the sliding glass door that led to the Coopers' deck. The last time she'd seen Chad, he was heading for that door, and now she was following him, preparing herself for a fake breakup and getting ready to have one intensely burning question answered.

Avoiding several of Chad's curious relatives and their questions about her 'relationship' with Chad (wasn't it enough that she'd been talking to all of them all night? Sonny was a people person, but sometimes people were just _too_ curious when they were asking questions), Sonny finally stumbled her way to the door and slid it open. Chad was leaning against the railing of the deck, staring up at the sky. Sonny raised an eyebrow and shut the door.

"Hey, Munroe."

"What are you doing out here?"

Chad laughed slightly. "Same thing you're probably doing: avoiding my family."

Sonny slowly walked over to where Chad was standing. "Actually, your family's pretty entertaining…when they're not asking me horribly invasive questions about our so-called relationship. Tell me, who started the rumor that you and I are kissing at midnight? Was it you?"

He snorted. "Please, Munroe. We both know I'd never kiss _you_. Granny Cooper started that rumor. Take it up with her if you've got a problem with it."

"Your _grandmother_ started that rumor?" Sonny scoffed. "Yeah. I highly doubt that, Chad."

"I'm serious," Chad insisted. "She may seem like a sweet old woman, but she's really manipulative and-and…" Chad spluttered, trying to find the words to find his grandmother's true demeanor

"Just like you?" Sonny teased.

"Uncalled for, Sonny. Very uncalled for."

"But true."

"Did I say it wasn't?"

Sonny shivered and Chad, apparently noticing the movement, shrugged out of his leather jacket and held it out to her. Sonny was surprised.

"Chad, I can't take your jacket," she protested. "You'll get cold."

"I'm wearing two shirts, Sonny," Chad said sounding bored, motioning to the sweater he was wearing over a button down shirt. "I think I'll be fine."

"Well, in that case…" Sonny said with a smile, slipping her arms through the sleeves of the brown jacket. "By the way, you've got about two minutes to break up this fake relationship. Think you can do it? Or do we need to call in your grandma for backup?"

"Oh, I know for a _fact_ that I can break up this fake relationship, Munroe. In case you've forgotten, _I_ am a professional actor. Unlike you goons at _So Random!_ I'm a real actor, Sonny. I won't have any problems convincing my parents this relationship is over. Besides, this is the exact opposite of what Grandma Cooper wants. I'm pretty sure that whole us-kissing-at-midnight rumor was because she's onto us."

"So she wants us to be together?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it. So how 'bout we shake up the family gathering a bit and give them the exact opposite display they're all expecting thanks to her?"

Sonny felt a smirk spread across her face. Finally! This whole fake relationship fiasco was going to be done with! She wouldn't have to be Chad's fake girlfriend at his family gatherings anymore!

…So why did she feel a tiny bit of…remorse?

Before she could go down the road of regret anymore, the alarm on her cell phone beeped, signaling the arrival of the new year, and her faltering smirk turned into a full-blown grin.

"You think you're the only real actor at Condor Studios?" she said to Chad. "Watch and _learn_, Cooper."

* * *

**January 1st**

**12:00 a.m.**

**New Year's Day**

**The Coopers' House**

Schooling her face into the look of a lover scorned, Sonny stormed over to the door and wrenched it open so hard that, when it slid into place, it rattled harshly in its frame. Several celebrating members of the Cooper side of the family turned to stare at her.

"_Fine!"_ Sonny screamed, whirling around to face Chad. He looked bewildered for a split second, but then the corners of his mouth turned down in an angry grimace and his eyebrows knitted together. "If that's the way you want it, Chad, I really _couldn't care less!"_ She stomped into the house and Chad followed her, slamming the sliding door closed as more people stared at them.

"Yeah!" he shouted back. "That's _exactly_ the way I want it! And as far as I'm concerned, Munroe, we're _done!_ Got that? _Done!_ No more Sonny and Chad! You can go back to your little _random family_ and rot for all I care!"

Sonny felt rather than saw Mrs. Cooper turn to stare more fully at the arguing couple. The entire house had gone silent, and the brunette actress knew their audience was listening, completely engrossed and enraptured by the argument. Chad really was a talented actor, it wasn't just the big head of Chad Dylan Cooper speaking when he'd told her that. Still, she thought as she tossed her hair over her shoulder, she could match him blow for blow, stroke for stroke, line for line. Sonny Munroe was just as talented as Chad Dylan Cooper.

"Fine," she said, dropping her voice to a whisper and feeling tears prick the corners of her eyes. Barely a second later, they started rolling down her cheeks and Chad, his eyes kind of bugging out of their sockets, took a step forward as if he were scared he'd actually hurt her feelings. Regret flitted across his face.

"Fine, Chad," she continued, her voice wavering unsteadily. "I get it, okay? I'm not good enough for you and your fancy little life. It's always been that way. I was just some girl that came along, am I right? Well, you know what?" Sonny paused for dramatic purposes and took a few steps forward so she could poke her 'ex-boyfriend' in the chest as she delivered her last line. "I'm done here, too."

Sonny spun on her heel, sobbing in what she hoped was a convincingly pitiful way, and ran out of the house, leaving a silent mob of people behind her.

She was halfway home when her cell phone mooed one time, signaling that she'd received a text message. She plucked the phone out of her purse at a stoplight and opened the message. Three words filled the screen.

_Bravo, Munroe. Bravo._

_

* * *

_As always, reviews are appreciated! Thanks to those of you who have reviewed the story thus far. Your reviews make my day!


	4. Month Three: Douchebaggery: Chad's Story

A/N: Hey, guys! Welcome back to _Twelve Months!_ So the closet chapter is next. Yay for Great Aunt Marietta's cursing bird!

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Three

Douchebaggery: Chad's Story

* * *

_Tawni Hart cordially invites you to her third annual_

_Black & Red Party_

_February 14 at 8 o'clock in the evening at Kellynch Springs Country Club_

_No date, no party!_

_Wear _only_ black, red, or both colors_

* * *

**February 14th**

**2:01 p.m.**

**Valentine's Day**

**Condor Studios**

_**Mackenzie Falls**_** Set**

Chad was finishing up a scene with Devon when he noticed somebody who wasn't dressed in the _Mackenzie Falls_ uniform lingering behind the camera. It wasn't that much of a surprise. People stopped in all the time when "The Falls" was shooting. That was what happened when you acted on the top teen show in America: people tended to drop in.

So when he walked off set after pushing Devon into a pond for insulting Mackenzie's mother, he _was_ surprised to see that the visitor was none other than Sonny Munroe. She looked kind of nervous and was nibbling at her thumbnail like it was her first meal in days. She waved slightly when Chad looked her way. He approached her slowly, somewhat confused. He hadn't heard from her in over a month…

Well, apart from those lame text messages that are all, "If you don't forward me, you'll die/be ugly for life/lose all your friends/never date again." Or the ones that are all, "Forward me to 5,000 people! If you get 5,060 back, you're the most beautiful person on the face of the planet and no one can surpass your gorgeousness!" Chad didn't ever _believe_ those messages, but he never wanted to risk it, so he sent them to people like Portlyn who _would _believe them.

After all, Chad Dylan Cooper's gorgeousness was no laughing matter.

"'Sup, Munroe?" Chad said upon reaching the funny girl from Wisconsin.

"I'm not on your 'Do Not Admit' wall," Sonny said.

"Yeah," Chad said slowly. "So what? Didn't you notice that the _last_ hundred times you barged onto my set?"

"I don't barge onto your set that much, Chad," she replied. "It just…surprised me is all. I figured I would be up there with the rest of my cast." Sonny shrugged and followed Chad as he walked over to a concession table and picked up a bottle of water.

"Yeah, the only reason you're not on that wall is because - unlike the rest of the weirdoes in Chuckle City - I kinda like you, Munroe," Chad stated, opening the water bottle and drinking from it.

Skyler DeVane, the actor who portrayed Devon, Mackenzie's half-brother, chose that moment to walk up and interrupt Chad and Sonny's conversation. He was halfway through congratulating Chad on doing so well in their scene (he did it every scene Chad filmed with him. The guy was the biggest suck up on the face of the planet) when Sonny caught his eye.

"Well, well," he said, giving Sonny the most obvious once over Chad had ever seen. "Who've we got here? I don't remember seeing _you_ around The Falls before, gorgeous. And trust me: I would've remembered _you_."

"Her name's _Sonny_, dude," Chad said loudly, putting himself between Sonny and Skyler, "not 'gorgeous' or any other crap you can come up with." He narrowed his eyes threateningly at his costar. "She's with the cast of _So Random!_ and she's _not your type_. So move along."

Skyler raised his hands in surrender and backed away. "Fine, dude. Message received. Hands off the girl, right?" He smirked in a way that Chad associated with Skyler's character, Devon. "Besides, I wouldn't want to come between you two."

Chad sneered and turned back to Sonny, brushing past her. "Remind me to get that guy written off the show," he muttered harshly.

"What was _that_, Chad?" Sonny asked, several decibels louder than he would've liked her to.

"_That_ was _nothing_, Munroe," Chad shot back, glaring at her out of the corner of his eye as the pair of actors rounded the corner to his dressing room.

"Bull," Sonny declared, planting herself between the blonde actor and his dressing room door. "You were jealous, weren't you, Cooper?"

Chad scowled at her. "Move, Munroe."

"No. I don't think I will."

"I _wasn't _jealous," Chad hissed, causing Sonny to roll her eyes and scoff.

"I may be funny, Chad, but that doesn't mean I'm _stupid_," she said. "If you were jealous, _fine_. Just admit it. I'm not judging you."

"Jesus!" Chad said, throwing his hands in the air. "I only asked you what was up, Sonny! It wasn't an invitation for you to accuse me of being jealous of some…_jerk_ who was _clearly_ only interested in…in…" Chad spluttered, feeling his face flush a nice bright red. "Well, I don't think I have to explain it to you!"

"Chad," Sonny said, placing a hand on his arm and stepping closer to him, "I think you're blowing it a bit out of proportion."

Chad frowned deeply. "Just because I got a little protective of you doesn't mean I was _jealous_, Sonny," he said quietly, stepping around her and opening the door to his dressing room. "It _doesn't_," he said one more time.

But this time he wasn't trying to convince Sonny. He was trying to convince himself.

_("You can't, you can't, you __**can't**__!" Portlyn had yelled. "You're…! And she's…! There is a __**rivalry**__, Chad! That's all…important and stuff! We have to squish those stupid heads like…y'know! Things you squish! We can't do that if you're…y'know! Playing kissy face with one of them! Besides, you could do __**so**__ much better than a comedian, Chad. She's not good enough for you!")_

When he turned around, Sonny was still standing there, a somber expression on her face. She had her arms folded across her chest and she was staring solemnly at him.

"I'm sorry."

The words fell completely unbidden from Chad's lips and surprise flickered across Sonny's face. Chad was sure the emotion was mirrored in his own features.

_I __**apologized**__?! Oh, God! What is she __**doing**__ to me? _Chad questioned himself wildly.

"I mean," he continued to babble, "you obviously came down here for a reason, and I obviously haven't helped in any way. Do you want to come in? We can sit down and talk about whatever it is you need."

Sonny shrugged and offered him a small smile. "Sure."

Chad beckoned her into the small room and shut the door, wondering why it was suddenly such a big deal to him that he was getting jealous of guys approaching Sonny. He sat down next to her on the cream-colored couch and offered her the most charming and disarming smile he could muster up.

"So, Munroe… 'Sup?" Chad questioned her lamely.

"What are you doing tonight?" Sonny said, smiling softly.

"Tonight? You mean tonight as in _Valentine's Day_ tonight?"

"…Yes," she said slowly.

"Nothing," Chad replied. "I never do anything on Valentine's Day. In fact," he continued, "I _pride_ myself on that fact."

"Oh, well not this year," Sonny said, standing up and brushing off her skirt as though she'd sat in crumbs or dirt (which she hadn't because Chad kept his dressing room impeccably clean). "See, Tawni's having black and red party, and I'm invited. The thing is, I can't go unless I have a date."

"Why not?"

"Tawni's rules. And seeing as how Grady and Nico already have dates, I figured now would be a good time to take you up on that fake date you owe me."

"Why would you take me to a party with your castmates, Sonny? I think we both know that it'll most likely end in disaster if you do."

"And _I _think you're underestimating both my friends _and_ yourself, Chad," Sonny said, heading toward the door. "Look, the party's at eight. I'll text you my address and you can pick me up. It'll be fine; I promise. We probably won't stay that long anyway." She opened the door and Chad, who was busy muttering his consent, shifted his eyes to the empty hook on the wall.

"Hey, Sonny?" he called after her, causing her to pause in the doorway.

"Yeah?"

"Have you seen my brown leather jacket? I-I can't find it anywhere."

Sonny turned around, a smile of mysterious origins tweaking her lips. She shrugged. "Sorry, Chad. I haven't seen it." Her smile grew more secretive. "Maybe you…misplaced it." She left the room, closing the door behind herself.

Chad frowned. How did he manage to misplace an entire jacket? It was entirely implausible! Chad Dylan Cooper did not misplace his belongings!

* * *

**February 14th**

**7:45 p.m.**

**Valentine's Day**

**Sonny's Apartment**

Sonny swiped one last coat of lip gloss across her lips then stepped back from the mirror and examined her outfit. She was wearing a red, poofy dress with a sweetheart neckline and black spaghetti straps. The top of the dress was trimmed with black lace, as was the bottom. The wide sash across the torso was made of the same black lace. Black tulle peeked from underneath the bottom hem of the dress.

The doorbell rang and Sonny exited her room, nearly tripping over a pair of snow boots on her way to the door. Her black heels clacked loudly against the laminate wood floors. Peering through the peephole, Sonny noted that the person at her door was none other than Chad himself and he was wearing a red dress shirt under what appeared to be a new leather jacket in black. She rolled her eyes and opened the door, glowering at the soap actor before her.

"Hey, Munroe."

"You're late," Sonny spat.

"Wrong," Chad replied with a characteristic smirk, "I'm _fashionably_ late. Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Sonny sighed and stepped aside, gesturing Chad into the apartment. As he was looking around in obvious curiosity, Sonny took the opportunity to rifle quickly through her coat closet and extract her black jacket without Chad noticing the one he'd 'misplaced.' It was funny how he could remember that she was wearing a fat suit when they met, but he couldn't remember that he'd loaned her his jacket New Year's Eve at his parents' party right before their 'breakup.' She'd give the jacket back to him…eventually.

"You know, your apartment's kind of a mess, Sonny," Chad commented as she buttoned up her jacket.

"Only because I wasn't planning on letting you in," Sonny retorted, picking up her purse. "Let's go." She gestured toward the door and Chad walked out of the apartment, making a face at her.

"_Fine_, Bossy Boots. We'll go."

Sonny locked the door, and the pair walked to the elevator in silence. As they were exiting the apartment building, Chad finally spoke up, asking where the party was taking place.

"Well, I don't know how to get there," Sonny said, "but the invitation said it was at Kellynch Springs Country Club. Tawni said it wasn't that far."

"Kellynch Springs?" Chad asked. "Yeah, I'm familiar with the place. It's about twelve blocks away from here."

Sonny was reaching for the handle of the car door, when Chad beat her to it and, in a surprise stroke of chivalry, opened the door for her. After making sure she was in the car, Chad closed the door and made his way around to the driver's side, hopping in and starting the engine.

"So, if you don't intend on staying for long at Tawni's party, why go at all?" Chad asked as he pulled out of the parking lot and into the busy street.

"Tawni's my friend," Sonny explained like it was the most obvious answer on the face of the planet. "She wanted me to be at her party, so I told her I'd be there. It's as simple as that."

"But she told you that you couldn't go if you didn't have a date."

Sonny chuckled slightly. "Yeah, she put it on every invitation but actually underlined it on mine. It's Tawni's not-so-subtle way of trying to get me to date again."

"You haven't dated anyone since that Conroy twit?" Chad said, sounding surprised.

"No-o…" Sonny said, drawing the word out. "I _have_. It just…didn't turn out well."

"Why?"

Sonny glanced over at Chad, raising an amused eyebrow. "Why do you care, Chad?"

"I don't," he said loudly, returning her glance.

Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, Sonny looked back out her window. "Let's just say I don't like being texted and called twenty-four-seven and I _definitely_ don't enjoy people showing up where I live _completely_ unannounced and unexpected when I don't answer my phone. I kind of felt like I was being stalked, to be honest."

"C'mon, Munroe. It couldn't have been _that_ bad."

"He knew my favorite candy, Chad."

"Did you tell him your favorite candy?"

"No."

"Okay, yeah," Chad conceded. "He sounds a little bit creepy."

"Thank you!" Sonny exclaimed. There was a short moment of silence before she said quietly, "Let's just say I don't pick the best boyfriends."

"That's not true," Chad disagreed and Sonny looked over at him, incredulity written in her eyes. "You picked _me_," he continued.

"Chad, we _fake date!_ This doesn't even _count_ as a relationship!"

"Still," Chad persisted. "As far as any type of boyfriend you've had goes, I'm the best out of all of them."

Sonny pondered over the truthfulness of his statement for a few minutes before laughing. "That's really sad," she said. "The best boyfriend I've had is _you_ and you're not even my _real_ boyfriend."

"At least you can laugh about it," Chad said, turning left at a stop sign. "Most girls would be bawling if somebody said that to them."

"Well, I'm not most girls, Cooper, " Sonny said proudly as Chad pulled his convertible into a parking spot at the country club.

"That you aren't, Munroe," he said quietly as he smiled slightly at her and cut the engine. "That you aren't."

The look he was giving her made her insides squirm in an oddly thrilling way and she was thankful for the darkness of the car; it meant he couldn't see her blushing. She opened the car door and looked back at him.

"Ready to mingle with Tawni's friends?'

"You mean commit social suicide?" Chad joked. "Nope. But let's go before I change my mind."

When they entered Tawni's party, nothing dramatic happened like Sonny was half-expecting it to. Nobody turned around to stare, nobody screamed, and nobody brought about a mob mentality. The only drama came from Tawni.

Upon seeing Sonny, Tawni had come slinking up to her costar and rival. She was wearing a bright red halter dress that was completely and totally sequined from top to bottom, and she had one of the teen gladiators in tow.

"Sonny! You made it!" she cheered with a bright smile. "And you…brought… Chad?" Tawni's face fell, obvious disappointment filling her eyes.

Sonny shrugged and Chad raised an unenthused eyebrow.

"You said I had to bring a date, Tawni."

"So you brought, _Cooper?_" Tawni sounded disgusted. "Jeez, Sonny. I overlooked your terrible taste when you brought him along on that fake date, but this is…"

Chad almost laughed as realization dawned on Tawni's face and she gasped dramatically and pointed and accusatory finger at the brunette actress. Even Sonny was smirking.

"This is one of your stupid fake dates, isn't it?" Tawni demanded. "_Isn't_ it, Sonny?"

"Hey," Sonny said, grabbing a hold of Chad's hand and pulling him away from the scene Tawni was about to make. "You said I had to bring a date. You didn't specify what kind."

Chad allowed himself a small chuckled when they were a safe distance away from Sonny's costar. "Did you see the look on her face?" he muttered, lightly nudging Sonny in the ribs with his elbow.

"_See_ it? I don't know how I could've missed it," Sonny replied with a quick grin. "Hopefully she'll stop trying to get me to date after this."

"Why does it suddenly seem like Tawni's obsessed with your personal life?" Chad asked, following Sonny to a small table. "She doesn't really come off as the type of person who would care."

"Neither do you, Chad."

Chad shrugged one shoulder and stared at Sonny, waiting an explanation. She really did look pretty tonight. It was a shame that he didn't tell her when she first answered the door. Instead, he had to go and pick on the fact that she had some shoes and magazines lying around her apartment. Chad winced inwardly. Maybe Sonny was right. Maybe she _did_ have terrible taste in men.

"Tawni seems to think that the only time I'm truly enjoying myself around a guy is when that guy is you," Sonny said sounding completely detached from the conversation. "Because she thinks that, she thinks I need to date more."

"You don't think she's right."

"Of course not," Sonny said. "I date as much as I'm comfortable with. Unlike most people, I don't feel the need to be in a relationship all the time. It's just not me. I like hanging out with my friends and I don't like feeling as though I have to cancel plans with them to be with someone else."

Chad nodded in understanding. "You'd rather date someone who felt like a friend but was still your boyfriend. You'd want that person - whoever he may be - to be able to be friends with your friends."

"Exactly!"

"I know how you feel."

Sonny scoffed and rolled her eyes, saying, "Somehow, I _really_ doubt that, Chad."

"Is it so hard to believe that I'm human? That maybe I'm looking for the same things you are?"

"Oh, come on! You're such a womanizer, Chad."

"I am not!"

"Chad. You ask a girl out just to dump her the next day. And what about those twins you were dating at the same time? Those poor girls had no idea! For the past year and a half that I've been around you, you've had a new girlfriend almost every day. Sometimes more!"

Chad opened his mouth to provide a counterargument, but Sonny cut him off.

"I don't care what you say, it's not normal." She sat back in her seat and crossed her arms before tacking on, "Or healthy."

"You think you know everything about me, Munroe, but you don't."

She let out a short laugh. "I know people, Cooper. I can read you like a book."

"Fine," Chad said. "Read me."

She couldn't read him. He was Chad Dylan Cooper. Chad Dylan Cooper was like a freakin' enigma. He was so complicated that nobody could ever get beyond his handsome, brooding, mysterious surface.

"You're desperate."

_Ouch._

There went Chad Dylan Cooper's ego.

Still. He was an _enigma_. Sonny Munroe would never be able to read his book. It was too sophisticated and intricate for her mind.

"You hide behind Mackenzie. Mackenzie is, essentially, Chad Dylan Cooper. At one time, Chad Dylan Cooper was just Chad, but not anymore. Want me to tell you how that happened?"

Chad nodded slightly, intrigued. It seemed that they had both forgotten about the party for the moment.

"When you auditioned for your first role, you were just Chad. Plain ol' Chad. The guy who doesn't like to let his mom down, loves Christmas, and is a closet fan of Adam Sandler movies. After a while, though, a few good auditions and some minor roles went to your ego. That was around the time you started hiding the fact that you're basically like a little kid when Christmas rolls around."

Sonny was smirking openly at him now. He knew in the back of his mind that his mouth was hanging open, but couldn't bring himself to close it.

"Then, you landed the _Mackenzie Falls_ role. As soon as that happened, you had to hide the fact that you absolutely adore anything and everything funny. I mean, 'serious' actors don't have any business with comedy, do they?

"And since a lead role was such a big thing, you had to move out. You convinced your mom and dad to get you an apartment a few blocks away from the studio so your new friends would think you were cool. You didn't want to be stuck at home with Mom and Dad because it would tarnish Chad Dylan Cooper's image. An image that you decided to take in all new directions once you reached Hollywood."

Chad took Sonny's brief pause to pompously interject, "Fine. You explained how _Chad_ became _Chad Dylan Cooper_. There's no way you can explain how I'm Mackenzie."

It was an obvious challenge.

He was nursing a bruised ego.

"I'm not done with how you got to be Chad Dylan Cooper," she said with a smile. "I've still got that image of yours to get through."

"Fine."

She didn't bite at the chance to ignite one of their ridiculous arguments. Instead, she continued with her rant.

"Your bad boy image is an interesting thing, Chad."

"What are you? My shrink?"

Sonny ignored him, picking one of the roses from the vase on the table and twirling it between her fingers thoughtfully.

"It's like you try too hard to be bad, Chad." She plucked one of the petals from the rose. Chad watched it drop to the table.

_She likes me…_

"The fame's gone to your head, but you're still really just you underneath it all. But you try so hard to hide it."

Another petal.

_She likes me not…_

"And in order to maintain what you believe is your bad boy image, you date tons of girls, shove puppies, and sabotage other people's interviews. You also steal their prop houses and-"

"Is this about you or other people, Munroe?" Chad demanded, more and more hurt with each passing word. She had him absolutely pegged.

Sonny glared at him and then continued talking.

"And the whole source of your bad boy image-"

Another petal.

_She likes me…_

"-is Mackenzie. You took his antics, magnified them by two-hundred percent and adopted them as Chad Dylan Cooper's."

One more petal dropped surreptitiously from Sonny's fingers to the table.

_She likes me not…_

"Mackenzie is actually more tolerable than Chad Dylan Cooper, and he _doesn't even exist_. Chad Dylan Cooper is big-headed-"

Chad winced.

Another petal found its way to the table.

_She likes me…_

"-pompous, self-preserving, rude-"

One petal…two petals…three petals…

_She likes me not… She likes me… She likes me not and she's really hitting home_.

"-he's smooth and he can get any girl he wants. And he's so desperate for a relationship or love or maybe even just meaningless sex that he takes the first girl that comes along."

Yet another blood-red petal.

_She likes me._

Sonny looked up at him, her brown eyes smoldering with some unknown emotion. She smiled at him slightly and his bruised ego mended the slightest bit.

"Chad Dylan Cooper is a far cry from Chad."

"What makes you say that?" Chad managed to get out. He'd never met somebody who knew him so well before. It was really unnerving him.

Sonny shrugged, her smile turning sweeter. "Chad _cares_. He gets mad and protective when skeevey guys hit on his female friends, he holds doors, he makes sure he doesn't disappoint his mom, he tries to improve Chad Dylan Cooper's image… He even apologizes in sweet ways. It'd be nice to see more of him," she admitted.

Chad watched, completely enthralled as she blushed and lowered her gaze to the small pile of petals on the table.

"I like him."

He was opening his mouth to respond, when Tawni came sauntering up to the table, the teen gladiator in tow. The poor guy looked about as tortured as Chad was feeling, and his torture was probably Tawni-induced, too. But unlike Chad, the dude was probably _not_ pissed about Tawni showing up at completely inopportune moments. Moments where Chad was about to tell Sonny something important.

"There you are, Sonny! Why are you over here being antisocial? Leave Chad alone and come meet Kyle's friend Blaze; he's a gladiator, too!" Tawni insisted, pulling Sonny out of her chair and starting to walk away.

"Mind if I take care of this?" Sonny asked.

Chad shrugged noncommittally. "Sure."

"You'll still be here to give me a ride home, right?" she said teasingly.

Chad smiled at her. "Of course, Munroe. I'd never leave you stranded."

"Good." Sonny tossed the half-denuded rose to the table and started to walk away.

"Hey, Sonny?" Chad called after her.

She turned around. "Yeah?"

"He likes you, too. Just so you know."

Sonny smiled, blushed, and walked away, the silver charm on her bracelet sparkling in the soft light of the room.

* * *

Whoa! Another chapter that got away from me, haha. Originally, they were supposed to show up at Tawni's party, talk for a little bit, then Chad was supposed to ask Sonny to dance. From there, they were supposed to skip out early on the party and go get ice cream or something. I kinda like the way this went, though. Sonny totally called Chad out on his douchebaggery, and he just took it. I could see him doing that. I mean, he's a total sucker for her. No matter how much she bruised his ego, I think he'd actually listen to her.

**Doesn't Tawni just show up at the most horrible moments?** -grins-

**I expanded on Sonny's talent of reading people**, as you saw. She 'read' Marshall and Ms. Bitterman on the show, but I think that if this were real life, she'd be a little more...detailed or realistic about it. Anybody can observe people's everyday routines and memorize them to the point where they can predict the exact moments those people will do things, but it takes a special talent (talent Sonny now possesses) to be able to read people to the point to where you can say why they are the way they are.

**Kellynch Springs is a reference to Jane Austen's book **_**Persuasion**_**, as is Portlyn's speech **(or Chad's remembrance of part of Portlyn's speech, I guess). Kellynch Hall is a setting in Austen's novel, and, as I said before, Portlyn and the rivalry are the Lady Russell factors in this story (LR being the reason that Anne isn't with Frederick Wentworth. LR believes that Wentworth isn't worthy of Anne just like Portlyn thinks Chad can do better than Sonny. Which we all know isn't true).

**The whole stalker thing? Yeah. True story. **Pulled it from my own experiences. That conversation Chad and Sonny have about the stalking guy is a condensed version of my own conversation with my best guy friend (who also happens to be the guy I like).

**I'm considering posting an outtakes thing after I finish up this story.** Like the ice cream scene from this chapter that I didn't write. Sometimes chapters get too long and you have to edit things down and those scraps make for good one-shots and whatnot.

If you've actually read this entire note all the way through, I'm proud of you, haha! I tend to ramble.

**As always, reviews are appreciated, loved, adored, and sometimes even responded to **when I have the time or if one particularly nice or helpful one sticks out to me**. I think it'd be great to reach 25 by the next chapter. I won't hold the chapter ransom** or anything if we don't reach that magical number, **I just think it'd be really cool!**

Love,

EmbracingRain


	5. Month Four: He's My Elvis

A/N: Okay, for serious? I have the best reviewers ever! I asked for 25 reviews, and you guys hit thirty. Plus, you all made me feel so ridiculously warm and fuzzy on the inside! I really want to reward all of you for being so awesome, but I don't really know how to reciprocate such a blatant display of awesomeness! I mean, I've got an idea, but I'll have to see if I have the time to execute said idea…

**Special thanks go to:**

**sonnycentral **for reviewing every chapter so far and for the praise on my writing skills.

**0TwistedAngel0** for adoring my story and saying that it's refreshing.

**XxHeadInTheStarsxX** for saying my story is "beautifully written" and that I outdid myself (though it will be hard to keep doing that, haha). And also for saying that every word I put into the last chapter was perfect.

**Little Flame** for the wonderful review. It made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

**dynamiteword **for the coolest review so far. It's always cool to have suggestions from my readers! I couldn't put in the March Madness thing, but I compromised and hinted a little bit as to why Portlyn keeps convincing Chad to stay away from Sonny.

If I didn't mention you, that doesn't mean you're not loved! Those are just the reviews that stuck out to me last chapter. All of my readers have a special place in my heart.

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Four

He's My Elvis

* * *

**March 13th**

**5:08 p.m.**

**Sonny's Apartment**

"_Did either of you bring any water?"_

Sonny giggled at the scene on the television in front of her, digging eagerly into the bowl of kettle corn next to her on the couch. She popped a few of the fluffy, sweet kernels into her mouth as she watched.

"_Why?"_

"_Because we are way past where Jesus lost his sandals."_

The show was interrupted by a loud moo and Sonny sighed, pausing the DVD she was watching before answering her phone.

"Sonny Munroe's phone; Sonny speaking."

"Hey, Sonny!" Chad said sounding suspiciously happy. "What're you doing?"

"I'm watching _Bones_, Chad. Why? What do you want?" Sonny asked, wary of what Chad's motive was. They may have bonded a bit after leaving Tawni's party last month, but she still wasn't all too sure about her frenemy. He was obnoxiously unpredictable.

"You watch _Bones_?" he asked instead of answering her question.

"Yeah, so?"

"So isn't it kinda gross and gory for a girl like you?"

"Maybe I don't mind gore, did you ever think of that, Chad?"

"It's a drama," he said. "You hate dramas."

"No, I hate _drama_, Chad. Big difference."

"So does that mean-"

"No," Sonny sighed. "I don't watch your stupid soap opera, Chad. It's ridiculously overacted, and it's about _nothing_."

"Not true."

"True."

"Not true."

"True."

"It's not true!"

Rolling her eyes, Sonny said, "Look, this could go on all day. Why did you call me? It's Saturday night. Shouldn't you be out with Portlyn or some other thespian with an ego the size of Hollywood?"

"Thespian?"

"It means 'actor,' Cooper. Only in this case, it's being used in a derogatory manner."

"I know what thespian means, Sonny!" Chad interjected. "You don't have to explain it to me. I'm not stupid, you know."

"Why did you call?" Sonny demanded again.

"I'm _bored_," Chad whined.

"So find something to do, Chad." Sonny plucked another piece of kettle corn from her bowl and popped it into her mouth

"So I can come over?"

"Any other something but _that_ something!" Sonny exclaimed, wrinkling her nose.

"Aw, come on, Sonny! We never hang out outside of the studio. The only time we ever see each other is when we go on those stupid fake dates you invented."

"You can't come over, Chad."

"I'm coming over."

"No you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"No! You're really not!" Sonny insisted, narrowing her eyes in anger.

"…Fine. I'm _not_," Chad said, sounding insulted.

"Fine."

"Good!"

Sonny hung up her phone before the stupidity could go any further. Chad was going to drive her nuts one day, she just knew he would. Just like she knew he'd come over anyway, despite the fact that she really didn't want him to. Whenever Chad was told not to do something, it made him want to do it all the more.

Groaning, Sonny settled back into her couch and pressed play on the remote. She might as well get some quality quiet time in before Chad showed up. As Booth, Brennan, and Angela moved about the desert in search of answers, Sonny let the annoying blonde actor fade to the back of her mind. So far to the back that, when the doorbell rang an hour later, she looked at the door in confusion for a few seconds before realizing who it must be.

Rolling off the couch and straightening her pajama bottoms, Sonny padded over to the door, peering through the peek hole to make sure it was Chad before undoing the lock and opening the door.

"You know, Chad, just because you know my address now, doesn't mean you can just invite yourself over at random times."

"It does when I bring Chinese takeout," Chad scoffed, raising the box in his hands slightly and stepping into the apartment.

"_You're chattering me to death because you hope I'll forget you called me a wanktard,"_ Cam said to Hodgins over the remains of a human on Sonny's TV.

"Whoa," Chad said, walking over to the couch and setting his box of Chinese takeout on the coffee table. "Wanktards? What are you _watching_, Munroe?"

"I told you on the phone, Chad. I'm watching _Bones_."

"In your pajamas?" Chad asked with a smirk as he sat down on the couch and started opening some of the white boxes.

Sonny blushed. "I like to be comfortable when I watch TV," she mumbled, walking into the kitchen and pulling a couple of plates out of a cabinet. She took the plates back to the couch and handed Chad one before sitting down next to him.

Surprisingly enough, it didn't really bother her that Chad had actually shown up like he said he would (or wouldn't, depending on which part of their conversation you were looking at). She didn't even mind the fact that she was wearing her pajamas and he didn't seem to be fazed by them. It was like girls who wore their pajamas at six in the evening and watched _Bones_ on a Saturday night instead of hanging out with their friends were a normal occurrence in Chad's life. Which they weren't, that much she knew.

"So what episode is this?" he asked her, passing her the carton of fried rice.

Sonny shrugged, scooping some of the rice onto her plate. "I dunno. One with a dead guy?"

Chad snorted, helping himself to two egg rolls and then offering some to Sonny who declined and took some chow mein and lemon chicken instead.

"Do you do this every Saturday night?" Chad asked, breaking apart his chopsticks.

"Do what?" Sonny replied, mimicking his actions.

"This." Chad waved a hand around the room. "Y'know. Sit around in your pajamas and watch TV instead of going out into the world. This."

"Oh," Sonny said, chuckling the tiniest bit. "No. Sometimes I hang out with Tawni or Nico. I've hung out with Grady a couple of times. Zora…not so much. Sometimes, I go shopping with my mom or go to dinner with her."

"Does she live here with you?"

"Most of the time. She travels a lot for work, so I'm by myself more often than not."

"What about your dad? Doesn't he live here?"

Sonny froze, a piece of chicken halfway to her mouth. The curiosity in Chad's voice made her rivet her gaze to the television, her heart stuttering in her chest. She cleared her throat and let the chicken drop back to her plate.

"Oh. Um…No," she choked out. "No. He doesn't live here."

"Why not?" Chad asked, shoving some noodles into his mouth and turning to look at her.

"He left when I was one." Sonny shoved some food around on her plate, looking at it instead of Chad. "Turns out he had an entire second life that he liked better than the one with me, my brother, and Mom. I don't know him and he doesn't know me." She shrugged. "It's probably better that way."

There was a warm, comforting pressure on her shoulder, and she looked up to see Chad smiling at her in an awkwardly sympathetic way. She smiled back weakly.

"I'm really sorry."

Sonny shook her head. "Don't apologize. It's not like it's your fault." She ate some chicken before continuing. "Besides, sometimes I like to think that maybe he's seen me on _So Random!_ and that he regrets what he did. That maybe some part of him actually wanted to stay with us to see who my brother and I became."

"I think he'd be proud of you, Sonny. I know _I'm_ pretty impressed."

Sonny rolled her eyes. "I _hope_ he'd be proud. I mean, I put up with you almost every day. That's a lot to ask of a girl," she teased.

"Put up with me? _Please._ You _adore_ me, Sonny."

"No, I don't."

"I know you do."

"I don't, Chad. I really don't."

"Yes. You do. I can see it when you look at me."

Sonny laughed and shook her head. "Just shut up and watch the show, Chad."

"I'll take that as a yes," he said.

Sonny picked up one of the noodles on her plate and dropped it onto his hair in retaliation, giggling as he plucked it out with a glare especially for her. "Hey," she defended herself. "You were asking for it."

Half an hour later, the cartons of food were empty, and Sonny was sporting a full stomach and watching the show with half-lidded eyes. Chad was dangling a fortune cookie in her face. She snatched it out of his hand and opened the wrapper.

"Ughhh. I don't know if I can eat this," she groaned, looking at the cookie. "I mean, I ate so much."

"Oh, c'mon. Just open it," Chad said. "The fortunes are the best part of ordering Chinese food."

"You like the fortunes?" Sonny asked, watching Chad's face flush. "That's really cute, Chad."

"I knew you thought I was cute," Chad said, still managing to smirk despite his pink cheeks. "C'mon, what does yours say?"

Sonny cracked open her cookie and unfolded the fortune that fell out. "It says, 'Love is friendship set on fire,'" she reported, shoving one half of the cookie in her mouth. "What about yours?"

Chad split his own cookie in half and read the fortune. "'Laughter is the closest distance between two people,'" he told her. "Lame."

"Why?" Sonny shot back, amused. "Because it's about being funny?"

Chad stuck his tongue out at her, but before he could say anything, his phone rang. Sonny watched him fish the cell phone out of his pocket and answer it as she set her fortune on the coffee table.

"CDC," he greeted the person on the other line. "Oh, hey, Mom…I'm fine, just hanging out with Sonny."

Sonny smacked his arm. "Chad!" she hissed. "We broke up, remember?"

Chad covered the speaker on his phone. "I told my mom we decided to stay friends, okay?" he told her quietly. "She was really sad and it was the only reason to explain why there were pictures of us together at Tawni's party and the ice cream place in the tabloids last month."

Sonny scowled. "I'm not happy with you right now, Cooper."

"You never are!" Chad shot back before returning to his conversation. "Yeah, she's good. We're watching some TV and just ate Chinese… Picnic? What picnic?"

The brunette arched an eyebrow when Chad looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She could feel what was going to happen in her bones and sighed inwardly, sinking into the couch cushions.

"I-I don't think that's such a good idea… Why do I _have_ to, Mom?… Well, why didn't anybody tell Great Aunt Marietta the truth?… I know she's rich, Mom! It doesn't matter. Sonny and I broke up, okay?… She's not that scary…" Chad sighed and smiled at Sonny apologetically. "Fine… Yeah, I'll talk to her… Bye, Mom."

Sonny stared at Chad.

"So-o," he said, giving her a smile that was half a grimace. "How do you feel about picnics, Sonny?"

"I'm really, _really_ not happy with you right now, Chad."

"Yeah, you said that. It's already been established."

"No. No, then I was only _really_ not happy with you. Now, I'm really, _really_ not happy with you," Sonny clarified.

"What? Is there a difference or something?"

"Yeah. There is. Now, it's a whole lot worse!" Sonny exclaimed, picking up their empty plates and stomping into her kitchen where she placed the china disks into the sink and turned on the water.

"Sonny, please? It's only Saint Patrick's day," Chad pleaded, following her into the tiny kitchen. "Nobody ever does anything important on Saint Patrick's day."

"Chad, you already owe me one fake date, why would you want to owe me another?" Sonny asked, scrubbing viciously at one of the plates.

"I don't owe you a fake date."

"Yeah, you do. We had that first one so Tawni and I could dump James. After that one, you said I owed you a fake date. Then we had the second one at your parents' Christmas party. One of my stipulations for going with you was that _you _owed _me_. But before I could get the one you owed me, I had to go to that New Year's party with you. And that was when we decided that you owed me another fake date. We got rid of one with Tawni's party, but you've still got another."

"I don't care, Sonny. C'mon! I'll do anything. I'll get you a new charm for your bracelet," Chad said, motioning to the silver links around her wrist. "I'll buy you a puppy or a new part for your car!"

_A new part for the General?_ Sonny thought, turning off the water and drying off her hands before she turned to Chad a satisfied smile on her face.

"Really?" he asked. "A new charm for your bracelet?"

Sonny scoffed. "Jewelry doesn't solve everything, Cooper."

"…The puppy?" he asked.

"I'm not allowed to have dogs in this building, Chad."

"Not even if I got you some tiny rat dog? Like a Chihuahua or something like that?"

"Not even."

"So…a new part for the General," Chad said.

"And another fake date," Sonny said matter-of-factly, holding out her hand for him to shake.

Chad studied the appendage for a second. Sonny could almost see the cogs working and whirring in his brain as he pondered over the conditions, but he finally shook her hand, a mysterious smirk appearing on his face.

"Deal."

* * *

**March 17th**

**12:56 p.m.**

**St. Patrick's Day**

**Condor Studios**

_**Mackenzie Falls**_** Set**

**Chad's Dressing Room**

Chad was frantically searching for his car keys when somebody knocked on the door to his dressing room. He ignored the knock and kept looking for his elusive keys. If he had to be at his parents' house by one-thirty, then he had to be in the car by one. And if he had to be in the car by one, then he needed to get Sonny from her set in three minutes.

Throwing the couch cushions to the floor in a desperate attempt to find his car keys, Chad cursed loudly to find that they weren't there either. He looked around to find that he'd completely torn apart his dressing room to no avail: he'd lost his car keys.

The person at the door was pounding on it now.

"Chad! Open your door! I know you're, like, in there and stuff!"

Chad sighed and wrenched open his door to find Portlyn standing there with her hands on her hips. The blonde rolled his eyes.

"What do you want, Portlyn?"

"Are you coming to the cast party or not?" she demanded, stepping past him into his room. "Gawd! What _happened_ in here? Did the Randomites, like, ransack this place?"

"No. I've been looking for my car keys."

"So you can't give me a ride to the party?"

"I'm not going to the party," Chad told her, putting on his jacket and shoving his cell phone in one of the pockets. "I've got a family thing to go to."

"And you're actually _going?_ Oh, come on, Chad. That's, like, so lame! Nobody actually visits their…y'know, family. You went for Christmas, wasn't that, like, enough for them?"

Chad frowned. He really didn't like Portlyn. She was manipulative and bossy, rude and cold…in short, everything Chad himself had become (or so Sonny had told him). Scowling, Chad pushed her toward the door.

"Look, Portlyn. I've really gotta go, alright? I have to pick up Sonny." As soon as the words spilled out of his mouth, he froze and so did Portlyn.

"You have to pick up _who_, Chad?" she hissed, whirling around to face him.

"Nobody!"

"You're hanging out with _them_?!" Portlyn bellowed, her face turning a shocking shade of red.

"No, not them. Just...Sonny," Chad said lamely.

"I don't care! You shouldn't, like, be around her, Chad! Her stupid little friends, like, stole our ratings, _remember_? I told you before, _dummy_, we aren't talking to those jerk faces! They're all immature and junk!"

Chad stared at her, mouth agape. "Really, Portlyn? _Really?_ Because it seems like_ we're_ being the immature ones, if you ask me! That was three years ago, Portlyn. We've had the top ratings for most of that time! Sonny wasn't even here when that happened, okay? You just need to let it go."

With that said, Chad stormed out of his dressing room, off the _Mackenzie Falls_ set, and down the hall to _So Random!_ and Sonny's dressing room, leaving Portlyn staring after him, her mouth ajar and her eyes wide.

When he reached Sonny's room, he knocked on the door only to be greeted by Tawni's unenthused face. She sighed when she saw that it was Chad.

"Sonny just finished up a sketch," she told him, focusing on the nail she was filing. "She's changing; you'll have to wait."

Chad looked at his watch and sighed. They were late. His mom was going to be _so_ upset with him. Before he could respond to Sonny's blonde costar, the brunette was standing behind her, a perky smile on her face.

"Thanks, Tawni. Hi, Chad."

Tawni rolled her eyes and stepped out of the way. "You know, the others won't be happy when they find out about this," she said, squinting at her costar. "I'm always right…and pretty!"

Sonny laughed and stepped around Tawni. "Relax, Tawni. You're the only one who knows."

"I do, too," a squeaky voice interjected. It came from seemingly nowhere and caused Chad to jump, completely startled.

"What the…?"

The vent just inside the dressing room door slid open and the littlest _Random_ poked her head out, smiling toothily at the trio on the floor. "Don't worry, Sonny. I won't tell Nico and Grady."

Chad nodded and started pulling Sonny down the hall, an awkward half-smile on his face. "Do you have your car keys?" he asked her. "I lost mine, so I need you to drive to the picnic."

"You lost your car keys?" Sonny said.

"Happens a lot," Chad replied. "They'll show up eventually."

* * *

**March 17th**

**3:07 p.m.**

**St. Patrick's Day**

**The Coopers' House**

Sonny giggled behind Chad as they scurried down the hallway toward the back staircase. He could hear the clack of her shoes as they collided with the floor and abruptly stopped.

"Why are we stopping?" Sonny asked.

"Take off your shoes," he commanded her quietly.

"What? Why?"

"Because they're obnoxiously loud," Chad explained. "Great Aunt Marietta has ears like a bat. If she hears them, she'll find us."

"Fine," Sonny said, leaning over and removing the green espadrilles on her feet.

Chad looked around as he heard the backdoor swing open. He grabbed Sonny's hand and started pulling her up the stairs, trying to sneak up the wooden structures as quietly as he could.

"Nellie!" he heard Great Aunt Marietta squawk to his mom in her annoying bird-like voice. "Have you seen your son and his girlfriend?"

"I think they went up the back staircase."

"Shit," Chad hissed, pulling Sonny down the hallway and around a corner. He opened a door on his right and pushed her inside, following her in.

"Ow! Chad, what the heck? Where…where _are_ we?" Sonny whispered.

"I think we're in a closet," he replied.

"You _think_?"

"Well, seeing as how I can't really _move_," Chad muttered. "I'm assuming we're in a closet. I'm not in this house a lot."

"Chad?" Marietta hollered from somewhere nearby.

"Your great aunt sounds like a-"

"Shhh!" Chad hushed Sonny, covering her mouth with his hand.

"Nellie, I don't think he's up here!"

"I'm sure he is, Aunt Marietta. I'm sure I saw him run up there."

Sonny was giggling quietly behind Chad's hand, he could feel her mouth twist itself up into a smile against his palm. Chad pressed himself against her as a silent warning and to try and get out of the way of the doorknob that was digging into his hip. The material of her emerald-colored dress was soft under his fingertips, causing him to remember the complement of the color against her skin under the sun when they had walked up to his parents a couple hours ago.

Strictly speaking, Chad Dylan Cooper didn't _do_ love, but as he'd watched Sonny Munroe greet his parents, he'd felt his stomach turn over in a not entirely unpleasant way that he'd written off as nausea.

And now, here he was stuck in some random hall closet with her. A closet that he hadn't even known _existed_ until this point. They were hiding from his great aunt Marietta who was dead set on telling them (again) about how Elvis Presley had been in love with her. If it weren't for the Marietta situation, Chad probably would've kissed Sonny.

"Mmmph!" Sonny said from behind his hand.

"What?"

"Mmmph mmph mmph!" she said more insistently.

"Sonny, I can't- Oh, that was so uncalled for!" he whispered angrily at her, pulling his hand away from her mouth and wiping her saliva on his pants.

"Well, maybe if you'd moved your hand when I was trying to talk to you- Mmmmph!"

Chad shushed Sonny again, placing his hand back over her mouth. Great Aunt Marietta's thundering footsteps were getting closer and closer to the closet, and Chad could hear her stupid bird swearing quietly.

"_Squawk!…_Crap bag. _Squawk!_"

"Chad! Where are you?"

Sonny started to quietly giggle again and the footsteps paused just outside the duo's hiding place. Chad could hear his great aunt's labored breathing through the wooden door. Merle, the swearing parrot, dropped the f-bomb.

"Where are they, Merle?" Marietta questioned her pet, too much love in her voice. "Do you hear them, my dearest?"

Sonny's giggles had reached such a near-hysterical level that she had gone completely silent. The only reason Chad could tell she was still laughing was by the way she was shaking against his body. She was leaning against him heavily, as though he was the only thing keeping her upright.

A few seconds later, Great Aunt Marietta kept walking, and Merle's swearing got quieter and quieter. Chad counted to five Mississippi before reaching behind himself and quietly turning the doorknob, effectively removing his hand from Sonny's mouth but letting the other linger on the soft curve of her waist. He opened the door a crack and leaned backward to peer out of it to check that the coast was clear. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you were looking from Chad's hormones' point of view), the blonde lost his balance by misjudging how far he'd opened the door and how far he had to lean back, tumbling out of the closet and onto the floor, pulling Sonny on top of him.

Sonny blinked at him for a shocked second before they both erupted into raucous laughter. Chad felt rather than saw Sonny bury her face in his neck and he laughed harder, screwing his eyes shut against the mirthful tears that threatened to escape from his baby blues. He was so caught up in the feel of Sonny's body pressing against his and the sound of her laughter that he completely missed the increasing volume of squawked cursing and Great Aunt Marietta's heavy footsteps.

"_There_ you two _are!_"

Chad and Sonny stopped laughing and she rolled off of him and onto the floor with a quiet thud, pinning Chad's arm to the cool planks of wood.

"_Squawk!_…Idiots. _Squawk!_"

Great Aunt Marietta was hovering over them, her thin lips pursed into an unpleasant frown, her face a nasty puce color. Merle the swearing parrot was perched on one of her broad shoulders (made all the more broad by the padded shoulder in her eighties suit). Chad could swear that he saw several bats in the cave that was her nose.

"What were you doing in the closet?" she demanded.

Chad winced. Her voice was like nails on a blackboard.

Next to him, Sonny chuckled nervously. "Heheh. Y-you know h-how it is, Miss Finnegan," she stuttered out, her voice an octave or two higher than it normally was. "I-I mean…that is to-to say…Surely you remember what it's like to be young and in love?" Sonny scrambled up off the floor and Chad followed suit, brushing his jeans and t-shirt off.

"Oh, I remember, young lady. Mind you, I _never_ risked my reputation by shutting myself away in closets with members of the opposite gender!" Great Aunt Marietta chastised the comedienne. Chad choked back a laugh and Marietta rounded on him. "Think something's funny, do you Chad Dylan? You just wait until I tell your mother what you were doing, young man!"

"Miss Finnegan," Sonny interrupted, throwing her hand out to stop the ancient woman from lumbering to Mrs. Cooper to tell her about what she'd seen. "Please. I mean, you can't tell me you never, y'know, snuck away with Elvis, right?"

Marietta paused, squinting her frog-like eyes at Sonny who immediately latched onto Chad's arm. Chad forced himself to swallow. As soon as Sonny had pressed her body against his, his mouth had gone dry and he was suddenly hyperaware of each and every one of her curves pressing into his side.

"I mean," Sonny continued, "you told us how _crazy_ you and Elvis were about each other… Chad… Well, Chad's _my_ Elvis, Miss Finnegan."

Chad stared down at Sonny, mouth hanging open and eyes wide. She was such a little liar!

"Dumb ass!" Merle squawked from Great Aunt Marietta's shoulder.

Great Aunt Marietta scrutinized them before 'harrumph'-ing and starting to waddle away, calling over her shoulder, "You two had best right yourselves and get back to that damn picnic."

Once Marietta was safely out of sight and earshot, Sonny released Chad's arm as though he was on fire or had the plague. She retrieved her shoes from the closet and put them back on her feet.

"You," Chad said, pointing one shaking finger at her, "Sonny Munroe, are a _liar_."

Sonny rolled her eyes and closed the closet door. "You weren't saying anything, _Chad_. Somebody had to improvise. Besides," she continued, squaring her shoulders and looking Chad dead in the eye, "it wasn't lying. It was _acting_."

"Lying," Chad shot back.

Sonny sighed. "Call it what you want, Chad, but the next time we're stuck in a closet and you try to cop a feel, I'm kicking your _Mackenzie Falls _butt!"

"What?" Chad exclaimed. "I didn't try to cop a feel! My hand was on your waist the entire time!"

Sonny snorted and started to walk away; Chad hurried after her.

"I _didn't_, Sonny! Believe me, if I went anywhere near your chest we both would know!"

"Can we _not_ talk about my chest when your mom's in the house?"

"You started it," Chad mumbled.

* * *

**March 19th**

**3:14 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random!**_** Set**

**Sonny's Dressing Room**

Sonny was in the middle of discussing new sketch ideas with Tawni (Chad's weird great aunt Marietta and her swearing parrot had definitely been a source of inspiration) when somebody knocked on the door to Tawni's side of the room. The two girls looked at each other in confusion.

"Are you expecting somebody, Tawni?" Sonny asked. "Neither am I," she said when Tawni shook her head, clueless. "What about you, Zora?"

"Nope," came the muffled response from the vents.

"It could be Nico and Grady," Sonny suggested.

"No, they always knock on your door," Tawni replied. "And it's not your little buddy Chad; he just barges in without knocking whenever he wants."

Sonny shrugged and crossed over to Tawni's door to reveal a delivery man with a clipboard. He looked up when Sonny answered the door.

"I've got a delivery for one Sonny Munroe," he said, referencing his clipboard. "That you?"

"Yeah, that's me."

The man held out a small box and his clipboard, asking Sonny to sign on the dotted line. Sonny did so, accepting the box and examining it.

"There's not return address on this," she told the delivery man. "How am I supposed to know who its from?"

He shrugged and adjusted his hat. "Guy said you'd know who it was from after you opened it. Have a good day." As he walked away, Sonny shut the door and went back to the couch where Tawni was sitting.

"What is it?" the blonde girl asked eagerly as Sonny tore off the brown paper covering the box.

"I dunno," Sonny replied, perplexed. She opened the box to find another hidden within its depths. This one, though, was made of soft, midnight blue velvet. She opened it and couldn't help but smile.

Sitting on the satin cushion in the velvet box was a small, silver parrot charm with a sparkling eye. There was a piece of paper tucked into the lid of the box.

Tawni gasped loudly and dramatically, plucking the charm from the tiny box while Sonny busied herself with unfolding the note.

"Oh, my gosh, Sonny!"

Sonny ignored Tawni, reading the short note instead.

_Sonny-_

_Just a little memento from Wednesday I thought you might like._

_- Elvis_

"Sonny, that's a _diamond!_" Tawni shrieked, holding the parrot under Sonny's nose. "Who sent you a _diamond_?"

Sonny grinned, folding the note up, and then taking the parrot back from Tawni.

"Just someone, Tawn. Nobody very important."

* * *

I write too much, haha. I keep letting the chapters out of my control. It's kind of like they write themselves. I don't know why, but I didn't like this one too much. I feel like it could've been funnier.

Anyhoo, this was the closet scene from the prologue, but it was written a little differently. I dunno if that was a bad thing or a good thing. It also features the line that makes up the summary for the story, I just tweaked it a little bit.

Hey, do you guys think we could hit forty reviews this chapter? Once again, I swear I won't hold the next chapter hostage, I just think it'd be awesome to hit that number. I value and thrive on all of your opinions!

Love,

EmbracingRain

P.S. Prizes for anyone who can tell me which episodes of _Bones_ I referenced in this chapter (hint: there's more than one but less than five). _Bones_ is one of my few 'age-appropriate' TV loves. I couldn't help myself.


	6. Month Five: Children Having a Dream

EmbracingRain: Holy rusted metal, Batman!

_(ER dashes into the room, cackling maniacally and foaming fangirlishly at the mouth. She's successfully captured Robin, Batman's sidekick)_

EmbracingRain: AHAHAHAHAAAA!

_(She sees the readers and stops laughing, smiling sheepishly. She slowly shoves Robin out of the room)_

EmbracingRain: Ummm…okay. _Very_ awkward. It seems like you guys stumbled in just after I finished watching _Batman Forever_… Is there any way we can forget this?… No? _Really_? Damn. And here I was hoping we could all be friends and leave my worship of Robin the Boy Wonder out of it. I guess that won't happen any time soon… _**BUT MAYBE**_ if your reward for your awesomeness was ready… HA! I knew that'd get ya. Unfortunately for you, you have to read this chapter first and see what the note at the bottom says.

**Special Thanks to:  
****Don'tTellMeDon'tWriteBack** for the insightful review.  
**countrygal96 **for her awesome review and for recommending _Twelve Months _to her friend.  
**thesoapgirl** for reading and reviewing after countrygal96 recommended the story to her.  
**dynamiteword** for the awesome suggestion (I already had this chapter plotted out, but I hope this chapter is public enough, haha).

**Extra Super Special Thanks to…  
****0TwistedAngel0** for PMing me her review when ffn wouldn't let her post a real review. I feel really loved to see that kind of dedication in my readers!

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything except Ophelia and Kandi Sweetz.

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Five

Children Having a Dream

* * *

**April 23rd**

**11:04 a.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random!**_** Set**

Sonny pulled the long, black wig off of her head as she walked down the hallway to her dressing room. Josh the mail guy was slowly wheeling his cart down the hallway, but he stopped when he saw her.

"Hey, Sonny," he said.

"Oh, hey, Josh. What's up?" Sonny asked, running a hand through her hair.

"Mail," Josh said, handing her a bundle of envelopes. "Nice outfit, by the way. Trying the goth look?"

Sonny laughed as she flipped through her mail. "No, we just finished filming a new sketch on high school cliques. Zora says that it was more of a 'social commentary on the social hierarchy of teenagers.' Or something along those lines."

"Eh, what does she know?" Josh said jokingly. "She's only twelve, right?"

"True," Sonny said. "But she is kind of a genius."

"But she's never been to a real high school," Josh said.

Sonny giggled. "I think genius trumps never been to a real high school, Josh."

"You know, you're probably right. But then again, I'm just the mail guy; what do I know? I should probably go. I've gotta get Chad Dylan Cooper his mail."

"And I'm right here," Sonny heard from behind her. Chad appeared in her peripheral vision half a second later, decked out in his _Mackenzie Falls_ uniform. "Saves you a trip across the studio." He thanked Josh as the other boy handed him a few envelopes, but didn't even glance at the paper parcels. Instead, he threw his arm around Sonny's shoulders.

"Hey, Sunshine," Chad said. "What's crack-a-lackin'?"

"Crack-a-lackin'?" Sonny said, reaching up and pushing Chad's arm off of her shoulder, well aware of the fact that Josh was still standing there. "Really, Chad? Nobody's said that in years."

"Well, who better to bring it back than good ol' CDC?" he said, popping his collar. Then, before Sonny could say anything snarky to him, Chad had picked up her wrist (the one his charm bracelet was wrapped around) and was ogling it. "Check out this fancy little bracelet!"

Sonny narrowed her eyes at the blonde actor holding her hand in the air. He really _was_ up to something this time, she could feel it in her bones.

"What awesome dude gave you this?" he continued, smirking at her.

"Chad…" Sonny hissed through gritted teeth, a warning clear in her voice as his motive made itself clear.

"Chad, huh? Let me guess? Blonde hair, blue eyes? The perfect height of five-ten?"

Sonny could hear Josh chortling as he started to push his cart down the hall once more. "The tabloids really were right about you two," he commented.

"_Excuse_ me?" Sonny demanded, wrenching her wrist out of Chad's grasp. The places his fingers had touched were tingling hotly.

Josh just shook his head. "You celebrities really need to read what the gossip mongers are saying about you sometimes," he said before disappearing around a corner. As soon as he was out of sight, Sonny smacked Chad over the head with her bundle of mail and started stomping down the hallway, fuming.

"Um…_ow!_" Chad whined. She could hear him following her. "What the hell was _that_ for, Sonny?"

Sonny whirled around, startled to find herself face-to-face with him and struggling not to show it. "What was that _for_?" she hollered. "Are you honestly asking me that, Cooper?"

"What's with the last name?!"

"I'll tell you what," Sonny said, poking his chest and stepping forward so that she was nose to…well…chin with him. "Every day this month you've been pulling crap like that! _Every freaking day_. At first, I thought maybe it was just you and your stupid ego, but I finally figured it out! You're like a dog trying to mark its territory, Chad!"

"What are you insinuating, Munroe?" Chad questioned her quietly, looking her dead in the eye.

"You know what I'm insinuating! I'm not your territory to mark, Chad!" Sonny exclaimed. "So quit trying to pee on me!" She pushed open the door to her dressing room and slammed it behind herself.

Tawni looked up from the couch where she was texting somebody. "Problems with Chad?" she asked semi-sympathetically as she watched Sonny storm over to her makeup table and start to wipe off her raccoon-like eyeliner.

"How'd you know?" Sonny said sullenly.

"I'm pretty sure the entire studio heard you yelling at him just now. What'd he do this time?"

"He keeps trying to…pee on me," Sonny told her, scrubbing at the eyeliner and completely forgetting that Tawni wouldn't understand the analogy. Which she didn't.

"What? That's so gross! You mean he just, like, whipped it out and-"

"Oh, God, Tawni!" Sonny exclaimed, covering her ears. "Stop talking right now! It was an _analogy_!"

"What kind of analogy involves _pee_?" Tawni asked, getting up from the couch and taking Sonny's makeup remover from her. "Here, turn around. I'll help you get that makeup off."

"Thanks," Sonny said, relinquishing the items in her hands. "I was comparing him to a dog," she explained. "You know how dogs urinate to mark their territory?"

"Um…no."

"Oh," Sonny said, feeling awkward. Tawni really was clueless. "Well, they do. And that's how Chad's acting about me. Every time I start talking to a guy, no matter how innocent the conversation is, he _always_ shows up and starts acting like I'm his…property or something. He's constantly insinuating that we're together."

Tawni laughed, going to work on Sonny's other eye, the first being makeup free now. "Relax, Sonny. He's probably just got a little bit of a crush on you or something. You guys keep going on all those stupid fake dates, some feelings are bound start showing up."

"I don't feel anything for him," Sonny contradicted her friend.

"I don't know about that, Sonny," Tawni said slowly. "I mean, you wear that ridiculous charm bracelet everyday. You even wear it during sketches. Marshall asks you to leave it in the dressing room, and you ignore him. And you and Chad are always walking into the studio together. He even bought you a new part for your car."

"The car part was part of a deal we had," Sonny said defensively. "What's your point, Tawni?"

"My _point_," Tawni said, screwing the lid back on Sonny's makeup remover and throwing the dirtied tissues into the trashcan, "is that I think you have a crush on him, too. I think you have for a while. You might even like him."

"Oh, come _on_," Sonny scoffed.

"Sonny, I'm _blonde_ not _stupid_," Tawni said. "I'm surprisingly perceptive. And, honestly, if you like Chad, I won't really care. It's _your_ heart, they're _your_ hormones, do what you want." She shrugged and walked over to the door. "Just don't think I'll let him come anywhere _near_ Tawni Town. I'm gonna go grab some lunch before our next sketch, are you coming?"

Sonny nodded. "Yeah, just let me read my mail really fast."

"Okay," Tawni swept out of the room humming the Tawni Town theme song under her breath.

Sonny watched her leave, scowling. "I don't like _Chad_," she muttered viciously to herself.

"_Su-ure_ you don't," said a squeaky voice as the flashy orange curtains to Tawni's changing opened and Zora emerged.

The older brunette quirked a finely-shaped eyebrow. "How long have you been in there, Zora?"

The genius shrugged. "Long enough. Can I ask you a favor, Sonny?"

"Sure, Zora," Sonny said, crossing to the couch where Zora had sat down somewhat dejectedly. "What's up? Boy troubles?"

To Sonny's offense, Zora laughed and said, "If I had boy troubles, the last person I'd go to for advice would be _you,_ Sonny."

"Well…what is it?" Sonny pressed gently, despite her bruised ego.

"First, you have to _swear_ you won't tell Tawni that I came to you."

"O-kay," Sonny said, holding her hand up in the air as a promise, "I swear."

"I need your help picking out a dress to wear to the fundraiser ball the Children Having a Dream Foundation is throwing."

"Um…Zora? Children Having a Dream is fake, remember? Mr. Condor's daughter tricked all of us so she could meet Chad? Children Having a Dream was just an-"

"An acronym. Yeah, I know. But that invitation we got two weeks ago was real, Sonny. Mr. Condor actually started up the foundation six months ago. Didn't you hear about that?"

Sonny gaped at her. "That invitation was _real_?"

Zora nodded. "That's what I just said! Jeez!"

"But that means the fundraiser is tomorrow!" Sonny whimpered. "I don't have anything to wear!"

"Neither do I!" Zora exclaimed, waving her arms through the air.

"Then grab your coat," Sonny commanded her. "It's raining. We're both done filming for the day so Marshall shouldn't have a problem with us leaving." She snatched her purse and jacket off the hook by her door.

"Wait!" Zora threw her hand out and Sonny gave her an exasperatedly questioning look. "You're gonna go in _that_?" the smaller girl said, gesturing to Sonny's Hot Topic-esque clothing.

Sonny looked down at her outfit and chuckled sheepishly. "I forgot I was wearing this," she said, dropping her purse and coat on the couch. "Let me just change."

Barely five minutes later, Sonny was hurrying Zora down the hallway when somebody grabbed hold of her forearm and yanked her to a stop. The tingles spreading across her skin told her that there was only one person who could've stopped her and that person was Chad.

"We need to break up," he told her when she looked up at him.

Sonny rolled her eyes. "We're not even _dating_, numbskull. You can't end a nonexistent relationship," she shot back before tugging Zora out the studio's side door and toward the General, completely missing the magazine Chad had been brandishing in her face.

* * *

**April 23rd**

**4:16 p.m.**

**The Mall**

**Ophelia**

Sonny worried her lower lip between her teeth as she and Zora entered their seventh store. Ophelia was the last store in Hollywood that Sonny knew she could afford to buy a dress from on her allowance. She hadn't thought to bring her bank card with her, so all she had was the money she'd saved up for a shopping spree this weekend.

She glanced over at Zora as they began browsing through the racks of dresses. Zora looked a little worse for wear and more than overwhelmed. Fashion was not a part of the younger girl's comfort zone. The most she'd been able to tell Sonny was that the event was formal (like Sonny originally suspected it was) and that she didn't want to look stupid (which nobody would). Sonny still didn't know why Zora had come to her instead of Tawni, but she welcomed the lost girl with open arms. She would help Zora first, then she would get a dress for herself.

To tell the truth, she kind of wished Tawni was there to help them.

"What about this one, Zora?" Sonny suggested, holding up a long, electric blue and lime green dress. "It's got the bright colors you like."

Zora nodded slowly. "Yeah, I like that one."

Sonny smiled and draped the dress over her arm before looking through another rack of dresses where she pulled a couple more and then ushered Zora into a dressing room. She felt oddly like a mother duck leading her duckling into a pond it was terrified of.

In the end, Zora picked an orange dress. Apparently, she thought enough of her 'vast' knowledge of fashion at that point that, while Sonny was looking for herself, she was giving Sonny advice. Advice that Sonny didn't necessarily take. After all, what girl wanted to go to a charity event in a vomit-colored gown (she tried it on to appease her younger friend, but put it back on its rack as soon as she could, claiming that it didn't fit her properly)?

Sonny was just about to give up hope when she spotted the dress. There was one on a mannequin and one left on the rack. Sonny took the one from the rack, glancing at its size which was just one too big.

"Zora," she said, turning to said girl, "I'm gonna go try on this dress, but I need you to get that one off the mannequin."

"Why?"

"This one's too big for me," Sonny explained. "I have a feeling the one on the mannequin is the size I need, but I want to make sure I like the dress."

Zora saluted her. "Roger."

Sonny shut herself in the dressing room, shedding her street clothes and pulling the dress off its hanger. Just as she suspected, when she zipped up the dress, it was too large for her frame. Sonny examined the dress, holding it up with one hand. It was black, strapless, and fell to her knees. There was a bright teal sash and large, teal polka dots on the skirt made of a different fabric than that of the dress.

"Perfect," she breathed quietly.

A knock on the dressing room door made her jump.

"Well?" came Zora's high-pitched voice.

"Take the dresses up to the cashier," Sonny told her. "I'll be there to pay for mine in a second."

* * *

**April 23rd**

**5:33 p.m.**

**The Mall**

It was when Sonny and Zora were walking out of Ophelia and toward the parking lot of the outdoor mall that Sonny saw the magazine.

The little booklet was sitting innocently on the rack of a newsstand when Sonny saw it, doing a double-take when she noticed the cover. She immediately stopped and took off her sunglasses, picking up the magazine with her free hand.

"What on Earth is a _Channy_?"

Zora wandered back to where Sonny was standing, chuckling. "Think," she commanded. "Sonny plus Chad equals…"

Sonny shook her head, clueless. "I don't get it."

"Channy!" Zora told her. "Sonny plus Chad equals Channy!"

"No, _that_ I get. What I don't get is the concept. I'm not dating Chad," Sonny stated matter-of-factly, flipping to the page the cover indicated.

"You're not?" the boy behind the counter of the stand asked.

"No. I'm _not_," Sonny said distractedly, scanning over the article. "This is bogus!" she declared. "The entire thing is lies!"

"Well, _yeah_. You and Chad have been teen Hollywood's new 'It couple' for the past two weeks," Zora said. "Didn't you know that?"

"No!" Sonny spat, chucking the magazine at the boy behind the counter and jamming her sunglasses back on her face. She pulled out her cell phone and hit number three on her speed dial. Chad answered on the first ring. "We have to break up," she told him hastily as she and Zora approached her car.

"I told you."

* * *

**April 24th**

**6:45 p.m.**

**Limo**

Sonny drummed her fingers nervously against the leather seat of the limo as the car rolled down the busy streets of Hollywood. There were two pairs of eyes studying her in a disgusted manner right now and it was really getting on her nerves.

"I still don't get why Chip Drama Pants had to come with us," Grady sneered angrily. Nico nodded along.

Chad shifted uncomfortably next to Sonny who sighed.

"You guys read _Tween Weekly_'s website," she explained, ignoring the hideous sound of Tawni's nail file scraping against her nails. "I know you've seen the stuff they've been posting about me and Chad."

"So you brought him with us to prove them right?" Nico said, furrowing his eyebrows in anger.

"No-o," Sonny said, dragging the syllable out and fiddling the her charm bracelet. "I asked him to come along. He's with me so we can break up. Breaking up in front of the paparazzi should get them to stop printing-"

Zora looked around, glaring at the should-be rivals. "You can't break up," she said, cutting Sonny off.

"We can do whatever we want," Chad shot back childishly.

"I'm serious," Zora said, leaning forward in her seat so she could get a better look at them. "If you guys break up tonight, it's gonna completely detract from Mr. Condor's foundation's fundraiser. When he finds out that you two took away his publicity, he'll fire you. Not only will you be stealing the spotlight from a worthwhile charity, but you'll both lose your jobs."

Sonny frowned. "She's right."

"No she's not," Chad said. "Number one, they can't film _Mackenzie Falls_ without _me_. Number two, we're not that interesting of a couple. We don't have to power to take publicity away from an entire _charity_."

"Look, you two just found out about the rumor," Zora told them. "Do you realize what your 'relationship' has done for the ratings of our shows?"

"What'd it do?" Grady asked eagerly.

Everybody looked at him for a second and then Zora continued.

"Ratings skyrocketed. I heard Marshall celebrating it in his office the other day. Because the entire teenage population of America thinks you guys are dating, more of them are watching our shows. The number of viewers has gone through the roof and so have our ratings. People _like_ Channy."

"Can you not call it Channy?" Sonny requested.

"I think it sounds cool," Chad said.

"It sounds like a disease or some sort of extinct animal," Sonny countered.

"Cool."

"Extinct animal!"

"Cool!"

"Extinct animal!"

"Cool!"

"Extinct animal!"

"Cool!"

"Extinct animal!"

"SHUT UP!" Tawni bellowed, squeezing her eyes shut and pouting. "God! You're both freakishly annoying when you're in the same room."

Chad made a face at her that she didn't see.

"Look," Zora said. "Just take my advice. I'm the genius in this limo. Get through tonight, put on a good show for the people, and get your agents or whatever to release to the press that you've had an amicable breakup in about a week, alright? Can you be mature enough for that?'

"I know that _I_ can," Sonny said bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest, "but Chad appears to be revisiting kindergarten tonight. Having fun reminiscing?"

"You're mean," Chad mumbled, frowning at her.

"Exhibit A," Sonny announced sweetly as the limo slowed to a stop.

Zora pushed the pair toward the door and Chad opened it. "You two go first," she whispered to them.

Chad nodded and stepped out of the car, straightening his clothes before offering his hand to Sonny. She took the familiar appendage and he helped her into the late-April air, his fingers twining with hers comfortably. Almost immediately, flashes of light exploded into the air. People were screaming, reporters were rushing forward, and Chad was smiling down at Sonny in the most reassuring way she could imagine someone smiling.

"Ready, Sunshine?" he asked, squeezing her hand.

"As much as I'll ever be," she replied.

Chad pulled her into the chaos and down the short, carpeted path to the front doors of the building, making her pause every few feet so that they could pose for the photographers. They passed up all the reporters, though, responding to each question with an elusive 'no comment.'

When they entered the building, Sonny's jaw dropped. The entire place seemed like a warehouse-turned-conservative club. It was dimly lit and there were candles on each and every table. Along the far wall was a buffet and music was churning through the air. Already, there were celebrities twirling around the dance floor. The whole scene was overwhelmingly elegant.

Chad guided her over to the hostess stand, fishing out his wallet. "Chad Dylan Cooper and Sonny Munroe," he told the girl who was checking names off the guest list and taking donations.

"I don't have a Sonny Munroe on my list," the girl said, flicking through the sheets on her clipboard.

"It's probably under Allison," Sonny told her, blushing slightly as Chad raised an eyebrow. "Sonny's just a nickname."

"Allison Munroe _is_ on here," the girl replied, holding out her hand. "Donations?"

Chad placed two separate checks in the hostess's hand and she motioned for the pair of actors to continue down the short flight of stairs. Sonny felt Chad's hand land softly on the small of her back as they made the short trek and then found an empty table for six; he even pulled her chair out for her before sitting down himself.

"Your real name is Allison?" he asked almost immediately.

Sonny was saved an answer by the timely arrival of her castmates. Tawni and Zora sat down, but Grady and Nico merely said hello before zooming off to the buffet. Zora looked terribly out of place and miserable in the atmosphere of the room, but Tawni was soaking it all in with a wide smile. Until she caught sight of James Conroy, that is.

"Gross!" she exclaimed. "What's _James_ doing here?"

"He _is_ a celebrity, Tawni," Sonny said shrugging. "Just don't look at him and he won't come over here."

"He's with Hannah Montana," Tawni informed the other three. "I thought she was dating that Jake Ryan guy."

"I hear she gets around," Zora put in, shocking the others.

"Hey, did you guys know that Miley and Hannah are the _same person_?" Chad said.

"You don't say," Sonny deadpanned.

"It's true! I just found out the other day."

"Orlando Bloom!" Tawni suddenly shrieked, lurching out of her chair and across the room, a crazed glaze seeping over her eyes.

Zora sighed and pushed her chair away from the table. "I'm gonna go see what there is to eat in this place," she muttered, loping away. Sonny watched her leave, a look of pity on her face.

"Poor kid," Chad commented.

"Yeah, Zora's always hated being the youngest of the group."

"Who? I'm talking about Blondie," Chad said, hooking his thumb in Tawni's direction. "Chick's nuts over that pirate wannabe. He's gonna turn her down and she'll leave bawling her eyes out."

Sonny stared at Chad, shaking her head in disbelief. "You never cease to amaze me, Cooper."

"…Thank…you?"

"Sonny! Sonny, they've got a fro-yo machine!" Nico exclaimed, plopping his plate down on the table and sitting down. Grady was hardly two seconds behind him.

"It's true!" the other boy added.

"You guys _do_ realize that if you stick your mouths under it, Mr. Condor will find out and you'll both be in huge trouble?" Sonny asked them.

"Wehnudshtupd," Grady said around his mouthful of food.

"I know you're not stupid. I just thought I'd point that little fact out to you," Sonny said before turning to Chad. "Do you want to dance?" she asked him.

"Mind reader," Chad replied, standing up and taking her hand as they walked toward the dance floor. "Your friends have poor table manners," he commented, pulling her close.

Sonny smiled. "It's better than being a heartless jerk-face like _someone _I know. At least poor manners can be fixed."

"I'm going to ignore that obvious jab at my ego and tell you," Chad said coldly before letting a warm smile spread over his face, "that you're the most gorgeous girl in this room tonight."

Sonny felt herself blush and she ducked her head, hiding her face in Chad's chest. Most of the time, he was the biggest jerk on the face of the planet, but then there were times like this when he was just the sweetest person…

"I know I'm a jerk, but I'm working on it," Chad said.

Sonny froze and looked up at him.

He chuckled. "Yeah, you said that out loud."

"Sorry," Sonny murmured.

"It's your honest opinion of me," Chad said nonchalantly. "You don't get much honesty in Hollywood, Sonny. To tell you the truth, that's one of the best things about you: you never lie to me."

"I lie," Sonny said with a smile. "I lie a lot, Chad."

He just laughed and let go of her hand so she could spin away before he brought her back just in time for the tempo of the music to change to a faster, steamier beat.

"Know how to tango, Munroe?"

"You say that like it's a question, Cooper."

"Care to show up Brangelina over there?"

"They'll have no idea what hit them."

* * *

**May 7th**

**8:13 p.m.**

**Condor Studios Parking Lot**

_Channy No More_

_By Kandi Sweetz_

_Hollywood's latest teen It couple is no longer. Though sources claim that the teen couple of Sonny Munroe and Chad Dylan Cooper were together at least four months before their relationship was outed on Santiago Geraldo's show a month ago, the pair has officially split up._

_They were last seen together at the Children Having a Dream charity ball, apparently enjoying themselves._

_Although there has been word that the couple fought often at work, sources claim that the breakup was mutual and completely friendly. Both Munroe and Cooper have agreed to stay friends in order to promote goodwill between their shows. Rumor has it that _So Random!_ and_ Mackenzie Falls_ have established a long-time rivalry that some believed the romance between Sonny and Chad was mending._

_On the bright side, Chad Dylan Cooper is officially single and looking again, girls!_

Sonny smiled widely with satisfaction and promptly tossed the magazine in the nearest trashcan as she walked to her car, twirling her keys merrily around her finger. She and Chad were officially done. No more fake dates to family outings, no more fake dates to fool the press… They were done.

The brunette smiled a bit wider as she approached her car, greeting Chad who was leaning casually against the front fender.

"Hey, Chad."

"Hey, there, Sunshine. How was your last sketch?"

"Hilarious," Sonny replied, unlocking the driver's side door and tossing her purse into the car. "Nico and I were laughing so hard that we kept having to shoot it over. What about you? What's the drama at the Falls this week?"

Chad shrugged and reached out, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, smiling when her cheeks turned pink. "Eh. The usual. Devon wants to steal Mackenzie's business, Portlyn's being dramatic, and the new girl's crying all over the place because Mackenzie won't date her."

"Sounds completely _fascinating_," Sonny said sarcastically.

"So does a sketch inspired by my great aunt Marietta," Chad said.

"I was being sarcastic, Chad," Sonny chuckled.

"Oh! Well…I was, too."

"Really?"

"No."

Sonny laughed and made to get into her car. "I'll see you Monday morning, Cooper."

"That you will, Sonny. Hey, are you going to the prom?"

Sonny blinked up at him, hope spreading through her veins. "I was thinking about it. Why?"

To her disappointment, Chad merely shrugged. "I was just wondering. See you Monday?"

"Of course."

Sonny watched the blonde walk away as she shut her door and stuck the key in the ignition. Why would Chad ask her to go to the prom with her? It was completely irrational of her to think that he would. He was _Chad_ for crying out loud!

* * *

Nope! **It's not over! And the end of this chapter gives you a taste of what's to come** for our favorite pair. Of course, **you could always check out the **_**Twelve Months**_** section in my profile for an idea of what will happen **next chapter…

**As for your reward for your insane display of awesomeness that continued through the last chapter, I've decided to post the first chapter of **_**Twelve Months of Outtakes**_**. It's basically every deleted scene from this story. Why don't you check out the first one?**

I really liked the end of this chapter, but I wasn't so fond of the rest…I dunno. It was weird for me to write and I wasn't too pleased with the final result. Still, the last little section made me really happy. I also liked the part about Chad marking his territory. It was probably really weird, but the plot bunnies bit me. I think they were rabid this time because they were really mean about me putting that part in.

Let me know what you thought in a review!

**Do you guys think we can hit fifty-five or sixty reviews?** I think that'd be pretty much amazing. Plus, you guys would reach all new levels of awesomeness and **I might be compelled to do a double update of this story or **_**Outtakes.**_

Love,

EmbracingRain

P.S. I know I've said it a ridiculous amount of times, but you guys are freakin' AWESOME! I love each and every one of you.


	7. Month Six: Proma

A/N: Holy crow!…Did I steal that line from _Twilight_?…Oh, gross. I think I did. Not that I don't like the books. I just think the movie destroyed any potential they had. Kristen Stewart is a shitty actress and "R-Patz" isn't all that attractive. Taylor Lautner, however, did a fantastic job as Jacob.

Anyhoo!

As I was saying…

**Holy crow! I asked you guys to hit fifty-five reviews, and you hit sixty-nine!** I mean, I went to my best friend's house to go swimming and when I got home my email was stuffed full of reviews, alerts, and favorites! Then, I went to my other friend's house for a bonfire and there were _more_. The amazingness then continued throughout the rest of this week. You guys really did go above and beyond!

**So, in order to reward you, I'm doing a double update!** Yay! You guys get this chapter now and **I'll post the next one in a few hours.**

**Also, a Mega Mondo Super Duper Über Thanks to…**

**ALL OF YOU!**

A/N 2: So, I was halfway through writing this chapter when my laptop, Dane, contracted the blue screen of death. I was so hideously disappointed in him. Luckily, he didn't get rid of any data and this chapter was safe. Then, I was really pleased with Dane the laptop. Still pissed that he contracted the blue screen of death though… He scared the bejesus out of me!

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything except for Platinum Gold.

* * *

Also...

This chapter goes out to **cookie-cutter-rockstar** and **xxgymnasticsxxmusicxx** for getting the two _Bones_ episode references right and also to **BonesLuver** for getting one of them. You guys are fantastically cool in my book!

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Six

Prom-a

* * *

_Condor Studios requests the honor of your presence at_

_The second annual Prom_

_By the Light of the Moon_

_Saturday, May 15th_

_Eight o'clock in the evening_

_In the rear parking lot at the studio_

* * *

**May 10th**

**12:25 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

**Commissary**

Sonny slowly dragged her white plastic fork through the lumpy mashed potatoes on her plate. There was a hideous squelching sound when she pulled the fork out of the nearly-gelatinous lumps of potato and she scowled down at her plate. While the mashed potatoes and grilled pork chops were a thousand steps up from the usual crud everyone but Chad and his cast ate, the meal was still sub-par. After all, the pork chops resembled hockey pucks in both texture and color, and the potatoes…well, Sonny was waiting for them to grow legs and hop off her plate.

Giving the food up as a lost cause, Sonny scooted her chair away from the table and picked up her plate, walking across the commissary to throw the inedible junk in the garbage. As Sonny crossed the room, her brown eyes flicked casually to where Chad was sitting and staring doe-eyed at the platinum-haired girl across from him. Wrinkling her nose in disgust, Sonny pitched her plate and uneaten food into the trash and then went back to the table she and Tawni had claimed, sulking.

Tawni glanced up from her magazine when Sonny sat down, eyeing her suspiciously.

"For the love of Pete, Sonny! If you want to go to prom with him and he hasn't asked you yet, just ask him! It's not that complicated."

"Easy for you to say," Sonny muttered bitterly. "You've already got a date."

Tawni sighed, setting down the magazine. "Look, in light of your situation, I am willing to do you a favor," she said sweetly.

"What kind of favor?" Sonny asked, narrowing her eyes at her costar. Tawni just didn't run around doing people favors.

"That gladiator I'm dating? Kyle? His friend Blaze doesn't have a date for prom either. I could hook you two up!"

Sonny arched an eyebrow. "Thanks, Tawni, but Blaze isn't really my type."

"Oh, and Chad _is_? God, Sonny. I don't even get what you see in him."

Sighing, Sonny stood up from the table. "Neither do I, Tawni," she said before walking slowly out of the commissary and down the hall that leaded back to the stage.

She sat down in her chair and picked up her script, attempting to memorize her lines for the next sketch she was in. This plan failed, however, when the two new charms on her bracelet caught her eye. The first was a laughing bone encrusted in what Sonny suspected to be diamonds (a 'funny bone' was what Chad's note called the charm). It had been delivered to her apartment Saturday afternoon. The second was silver lock with a capital 'a' cut into it; Chad had delivered it himself when he walked Sonny to her dressing room this morning.

Tawni had gone nuts over the lock charm, immediately blurting out that it was from Tiffany's. Sonny, however, preferred to believe that there was no way Chad would spend _that_ much money on her. Especially when they were barely friends.

Sonny dropped her script into her lap, staring at the lock charm.

At what point did you stop being a guy's frenemy and move on to being a girl he bought pricey pieces of jewelry for but didn't date? Was it before or after you got shut in a closet with him and licked his hand so he'd let you go? Was it during a Valentine's Day party or while you ate Chinese take-out with him on your couch as you watched your favorite TV show and compared fortunes?

It wasn't that Sonny wanted to date Chad (because she _didn't_), it was just that…she wanted him to look at _her _with glazed-over eyes and a dopey smile on his handsome face like he did the pretty girls who guest starred on _Mackenzie Falls_. It seemed much better than making sure every guy in the studio thought she was unavailable and completely in love with _him_.

Sonny sighed, fingering the silver links of the charm bracelet. Maybe she should take it off and leave it in a box at home, forget it existed, and hope that Chad didn't go dropping a ton more money on whimsical charms for it…

* * *

**May 12th**

**12:17 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

**Commissary**

Chad bit thoughtfully into his roast chicken leg and squinted his eyes as he studied Sonny over Platinum Gold's shoulder (Platinum was her stage name and she was guest starring on _Mackenzie Falls_ this week; she would hardly give Chad the time of day). Something was missing from the Wisconsin girl's appearance today, but he couldn't figure out what. She was talking with Blondie and some big, beefy guy in the middle of the commissary which was weird, but _so_ not what was bothering Chad (Blondie was there so Beefcake wouldn't hit on Sonny, that much Chad was sure of).

As Sonny brought her right hand up to tuck a lock of mahogany colored hair behind her ear, Chad finally placed what was wrong, dropping his chicken leg into his lap. Most likely he'd stained his pants, but he didn't really care.

Sonny wasn't wearing his bracelet.

She'd worn that bracelet every day since he'd gotten it for her. He'd even witnessed Marshall Pike ask her to remove it for a sketch only to have Sonny refuse!

Chad gaped openly at her, not even realizing that his castmates were staring at him.

Sonny loved that charm bracelet! She'd always wanted one! She told him so! WHY WASN'T SHE WEARING IT?!

Now, she was… What was she doing? She was writing something on Beefcake's hand! And now Blondie was looking over at him, an evil smirk on her too made up face. Chad knew that smirk. That was the 'I just screwed you over' smirk!

A quiet keening sound broke free of Chad's throat and he lurched out of his chair, his half-eaten chicken leg falling to the floor. Portlyn said his name in alarm, but he dashed out of the commissary after Sonny and Blondie, muttering that he wasn't feeling well.

The walls of the hallway were slathered with "Tawni Hart for queen!" fliers and banners. They were posted up every few inches. A couple of life-size cutouts of Sonny's blonde friend in a crown and sash were placed by corners. Several posters done in an Andy Warhol style were interspersed among the fliers. It was more than sickening.

Making sure to stay a few inconspicuous feet behind the blonde and brunette, Chad tailed them, barely having to strain to hear their conversation.

"Are you sure, Tawni? I mean, Blaze is…nice and everything, but he's awfully…large. I mean, he's a little too muscular if you ask me," Sonny was saying. "He's not really my type."

"Ugh! You keep saying that! Just go to prom with him. Chad's asking that Platinum Blonde girl, so you should go with Blaze," Blondie replied.

Chad raised an eyebrow. How did Blondie know he was going to ask Platinum Gold to prom? More importantly, why had she told Sonny and then paired her up with that beefy guy? Chad couldn't take the beefy guy!…And that was probably why Blondie had gotten Beefcake to be Sonny's prom date. Chad couldn't beat him up!

Sonny sighed. "I'll think about it, okay?"

"No, you'll _go _with him. It'll be good for you, Sonny. Trust me. Hey, I'll see you in our dressing room. I left my magazine in the commissary."

Chad watched Sonny wave goodbye to her costar and round the corner, his eyes bugging out of his head. They were in the middle of the hall! There were no doors or windows…he was stuck and Blondie was turning around! He met her glare with equal ferocity when she turned to face him.

"Chad Dylan _Pooper_."

"Blondie," Chad spat.

Tawni laughed shortly, pulling out her cell phone and pressing it to her ear. "Pot?" she said, glaring daggers at Chad. "This is Kettle. You're _black!_"

"Why'd you set Sonny up with that beefy guy?" Chad demanded, sneering at her.

"Well, _you_ weren't going to ask her to the prom," Tawni hissed, "which is really shitty, by the way. So I offered to set her up with someone she'll have fun with."

"You honestly think Sonny would have fun with that guy?"

"Better him than you," Tawni retorted. She walked a few steps away before turning back around. "By the way," she continued, "Platinum? Yeah. She's gonna say no when you ask her to prom."

"You couldn't possibly know that."

"Maybe, maybe not. But I'm always right, Chad…_and_ pretty!"

Tawni stormed away and Chad immediately pulled out his cell phone, fury spreading like a wildfire through his veins. He couldn't stand that girl!

"Platinum Gold."

"Hey, Platinum, it's CDC."

"Oh, _gawd_. What do _you_ want?"

"Do you want to go to the prom with me?"

"No."

The line went dead and Chad slowly pulled his phone away from his ear, staring at it with incredulity written all over his face. Platinum Gold had turned him down. She'd actually turned him down! No girl had ever turned down Chad Dylan Cooper!

Blondie poked her head back around the corner, smiling her evil smile. Chad stared at her blankly.

"Told you so," she sang sweetly. "By the way, you've got something on your pants."

* * *

**May 13th**

**3:03 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random!**_** Prop Room**

Sonny scowled and scrubbed relentlessly at the pad of paper before her with the eraser of her pencil. She and Nico had come up with the idea of spoofing every show on the Condor Studios lot for an entire episode of _So Random!_ and she was supposed to be outlining the plot. Unfortunately, Sonny was far too distracted to be even remotely productive. She was so completely unused to not hearing the tinkle of her charm bracelet around her wrist that it was driving her to distraction.

It was all stupid Chad's fault.

Chad and that dumb Platinum Gold girl.

Platinum Gold showed up to guest star on _Mackenzie Falls_, and Chad stopped paying attention to Sonny. Sonny started to sulk and took off the charm bracelet and then Tawni intervened.

Now, Sonny had to go to her prom with a Teen Gladiator.

_Stupid Chad,_ Sonny thought viciously, accidentally snapping her pencil in half. She growled and tossed the pencil pieces to the table, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff.

"Why so pouty, Munroe?"

Sonny groaned. Of all the people to walk into the prop house at that exact moment, it had to be Chad. He was the last person she wanted to see right now. As he sat down across from her, Sonny stood up and started to walk away, taking her mostly-blank notebook with her. She was halfway to the door when Chad's fingers gently wrapped around her bracelet-less wrist and electricity sparked underneath her skin.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Chad said, stopping her in her tracks. "I haven't talked to you all week, Sonny. Are you avoiding me or something? What's wrong?"

Sonny sighed, pulling her arm from his grasp. "How's Platinum Gold?" she asked a bit snidely.

"She won't give me the time of day," Chad said, his eyes frantically searching hers. "Why?"

"I heard you were asking her to the prom," Sonny said flatly, concentrating on the coat hook above his left shoulder instead of his face.

"Is that what this is about? Me asking some other girl to the prom? Because if it is, then you'll be glad to know she turned me down."

"It's about time somebody did," Sonny replied. "You needed to be taken down a peg or two." She started to walk away again, but Chad kept pace with her.

"You know, I came down here to ask you to go to prom with me."

"I already have a date," Sonny said curtly. "His name is Blaze. He's a Teen Gladiator. Besides, the only reason you're asking me is because Platinum Gold turned you down. You think that taking me will make her jealous. Which it won't."

"Look, Munroe," Chad said loudly, yanking her to a stop. "I know you don't want to go with that guy. You'd rather go with me any day of the week."

Sonny glowered at him darkly. He was spot on, actually, but that didn't matter at this point. What mattered was that he hadn't asked her first like she thought he was going to. Because of that, she'd already agreed to go to the prom with Blaze the Teen Gladiator and Tawni was all excited that they had 'matching dates.' Sonny just wasn't the kind of girl to go back on a promise.

"I _have_ a date, Chad," Sonny repeated.

"That doesn't change the fact that you want to go with me," Chad said.

"And the fact that I'd rather go with you than Blaze doesn't change the fact that you only want to take me in order to make Platinum Gold jealous!" Sonny exclaimed.

She could feel herself starting to cave. That was the thing about Chad: he always managed to get to her. He could always tug at her heart strings. It didn't help that she really _didn't_ want to go to the prom with Tawni's boyfriend's friend. As a result, her resolve was weakening. It was starting to worry her.

"Sonny, come on. We both know you're going to go with me," Chad wheedled, the cockiness completely missing from his voice. In fact, he sounded like he _wanted _to go to the prom with her.

Sonny sighed, knowing she was going to regret this decision. "What am I supposed to tell Blaze?"

"I'll talk to him," Chad declared. "I'm Chad Dylan Cooper. He won't even realize what happened."

* * *

**May 15th**

**10:39 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

**Rear Parking Lot**

She looked radiant, beautiful, and a thousand other wonderful adverbs (and this time, he'd told her so). It wasn't so much the dress or her hairstyle (though both looked fantastic on her), it was just…Sonny. Sonny in an electric blue dress under thousands of twinkling, fairy-like lights and a cheerful smile on her face.

As much as he really didn't want to admit it, Chad was smitten.

Smitten in the worst way.

He'd let Nico steal her away for a song by Cobra Starship and they were out on the dance floor goofing off with the other two Randoms (apparently the smallest one was too young to be invited to the dance), but Chad was getting ready to steal her back. After all, Sonny Munroe was _his_ prom date and he intended to spend as much time with her as he could.

It kind of helped that Sonny thought it was a fake prom date because she was still under the impression that Chad wanted to get Platinum Gold jealous. Chad hadn't told her any different, so she was putting on a good show. Part of the star of _Mackenzie Falls_ thought that maybe it wasn't just a show, that Sonny was actually having a good time with him, but he wasn't sure. Sonny wasn't like the other girls in Hollywood.

The music came to an abrupt halt right in the middle of "and I'm like, 'Hot damn! Let me make you my boo.'" Chad watched as a redheaded woman in a military uniform yanked the microphone out of the DJ's hand and glowered down at the mob of grinding teenagers.

"We're starting the voting process for prom queen," she said unenthusiastically. "Return to your tables and fill out the ballots. Someone will be around in a few minutes to collect them. Meanwhile, will out prom queen candidates please report to the stage?"

The crowd of dancing teens grumbled loudly but did as they were told.

Sonny dropped into the chair next to Chad with a bright smile. They each reached for a paper ballot and a pencil, pulling the items toward themselves.

"You could've come and danced with us, Chad," Sonny said as she scanned over the ballot. "Nico and Grady wouldn't have minded, you know. In fact, they kind of idolize you."

Chad shrugged. "I was fine."

"I know you don't like them, but- Oh, no."

"What?" Chad asked, looking up at the brunette worriedly.

"Tawni's not the only potential prom queen," Sonny explained, pointing to the piece of paper. "Platinum Gold is on here, too."

Chad opened his mouth to reply, but before he could get a word out of his mouth, there was a loud scream from the stage that could have only come from Tawni herself. Chad and Sonny looked on wordlessly as Tawni screamed incomprehensible words to the redheaded lady in the military uniform. Platinum Gold was twirling a strand of her platinum hair around a finger, a bored expression on her face (her name wasn't Platinum for just any reason).

"She doesn't even _work_ here!" Tawni screeched, the microphone in the woman's hand amplifying her voice a thousand times over.

Sonny smiled grimly. "Tawni just gave Miss Bitterman another reason to hate her. Getting mad about having more than one possible prom queen?" Sonny sighed. "Bitterman'll be assigning us extra homework for a week."

"It'll blow over," Chad said.

But at that exact moment, the entire cast of _Mackenzie Falls_ entered the prom wearing their uniforms instead of formal attire and causing all the heads that were facing Tawni to turn to them instead. Chad's heart immediately sank into the deepest pit of his stomach and stayed there. He felt himself go pale and his hands become clammy as Portlyn made eye contact with him and started marching toward his and Sonny's table, a sneer on her face.

"Oh, good God."

"What are _they_ doing here?" Sonny whispered to him. "I thought they weren't coming."

Chad didn't respond, wishing he could just disappear. Vanish without a trace. Portlyn stopped next to the table, her hands on her hips and her eyes burning brightly. The rest of the cast flanked her, gazing at Chad and Sonny angrily, their arms crossed over their chests. Up on stage, Tawni stopped pitching a fit to see what was going on. Platinum even looked around in interest.

"Chad. Dylan. _Cooper_."

"Oh, God," Chad whimpered almost inaudibly.

"I have, like, _had_ it. 'Kay? Like, up to here!" Portlyn raised her hand above her head and wiggled her fingers in the air for emphasis. "I'm sick and tired of, like, facing this all by my lonely! This is, like, an interventioning type thing!"

Chad winced. His cast had come all the way down here and they hadn't even bothered to write up a script for Portlyn to memorize. Squaring his shoulders, Chad glared up at Skyler, Portlyn, and the others.

"I'm insulted," he said, trying to remain calm. "You guys came all the way down here to yell at me and you didn't even write Portlyn a script? C'mon, we all know she can't talk without one."

"This isn't about Portlyn's inability to be articulate," Skyler bit out. "This is about you betraying the cast of _Mackenzie Falls_."

Chad heard shocked whispers ripple through the crowd of teenagers around him, choosing to ignore them. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Nico and Grady joined Sonny on the opposite side of the table, curiosity painfully evident on their faces. Each had placed a protective hand on one of Sonny's shoulders. There was a pained expression on her pretty face. Chad grimaced when he noticed this and then returned his gaze reluctantly to his pissed off cast members.

"What do you want?"

"We wanna know, like, exactly where your loyalty-type things are!" Portlyn proclaimed.

"You know where my loyalties lie," Chad said coolly.

Sonny slowly rose from her chair and Chad had never hated himself more. Thanks to Portlyn, after this conversation was over, things between Chad and his favorite Random were never going to be the same again.

"Damn it, Chad!" Portlyn cursed, stomping her foot in a childish manner. "I'm, like, _über_ tired of you pulling, like, this shit! Ever since Munroe, like, got here, you've been all, like, not _you!_ I told you, like, a billion gazillion times since you, like, told me you wanted to, like, ask her out and stuff to, like, get over her and-"

Chad lurched out of his chair, inadvertently knocking it to the floor. "I don't like Sonny!" he roared.

The whispers that had been skating through the crowd people came to a dead halt. Chad heard a sharp intake of breath from Sonny's general direction and turned to her, a pleading look on his face.

"Sonny, that's not what I-"

"Hey, _Pooper_!"

Chad snapped his head back around just in time to see the deep fury in Tawni Hart's icy, pale blue eyes before her fist collided with his face with surprising strength. Chad got a brief glimpse of the star-filled, velvety black sky before he hit the pavement and the air whooshed loudly from his lungs.

"C'mon, Sonny girl," Nico said quietly. "Let's get you out of here."

There were a few minutes of silence and then the whispers started again. Chad attempted to sit up, but the world spun around and he fell back to the pavement of the parking lot as gently as he could, pressing a hand to his right cheek.

"Bitch has a nice left hook," he groaned as Portlyn kneeled beside him, her eyes wide with fright, their argument temporarily forgotten.

"Like, oh, my _gawd_, Chad. What the…?"

Chad tuned out the rest of what Portlyn was saying along with the commotion that was going on around him as he lay in the parking lot. Maybe he had been right when he told Sonny that all proms ended in disaster. Maybe that was the inevitable truth.

Or maybe that was just what happened when Chad Dylan Cooper went to proms.

* * *

**Sonny's Voicemail**

**One week after prom**

_You have…one unheard message._

_First unheard message_

"Sonny, it's Chad. I haven't heard from you in a week. Please call me back."

_Beep._

_Message deleted._

* * *

**Sonny's Voicemail**

**Ten days after prom**

_You have…five unheard messages._

_First unheard message._

"Sonny, it's Chad-"

_Beep._

_Message deleted._

_Next message._

"Sonny, I didn't mean it how it came out. C'mon, just answer your-"

_Beep._

_Message deleted._

_Next message._

"Hey, Sonny girl, it's Nico. Just wanted to tell you it was fun workin' wit' you this season and I can't wait to hang wit' you when you get back from Wisconsin. Text me when you get a break from all that fun you'll be havin'."

_Beep._

_Message saved._

_Next message._

"Hi, Sonny…This is, um, Grady… I just wanted to tell you to have fun in Wisconsin… Oh, and Zora says 'hi.' Um…okay. Bye."

_Beep._

_Message saved._

_Next message._

"I'm _sorry!_ Alright? Just thought I'd get that out there before you deleted this message… Damn it, Munroe! Just answer your goddamn-"

_Beep._

_Message deleted._

_Next message._

"Sonny-"

_Beep._

_Message deleted._

_End of messages._

* * *

**Chad's Voicemail**

**Two weeks after prom**

_You have…one unheard message._

_First unheard message._

"Quit calling me, Chad. I'm in Wisconsin and I don't want to talk to you. Leave me alone."

_Beep._

_Message-_

_Beep._

_Goodbye._

* * *

Hmmm… So **did Chad save Sonny's message or delete it? That's up to your interpretation.** I couldn't decide which, so you can just choose for yourself. You can **let me know which one you prefer in a review!**

Once again, because you guys are so absolutely phenomenal, **I'll be uploading the next chapter in a few hours. I want to leave you guys in suspense for a little while. **-grins evilly- Also, I want to edit it a little bit more. It's still kind of rough around the edges. The next two chapters will, hopefully be different from anything else you've read in the Channy fandom.

**Want a hint?**

Okay, **in Jane Austen's novel **_**Persuasion **_(which this story is based off of), **the characters go on a trip to the beach. While there, Anne and Frederick **(the main characters) **get a chance to bond and sort of…renew their romance.** That's all I'm going to say.

Of course, **if you wanted more, you could go check out the **_**Twelve Months**_** section in my profile.** -hint, hint-

**Do you guys want to continue with your blatantly awesome displays of…well, awesomeness? Because if you do, it'd be pretty cool to be at or near 100 reviews after I post the next chapter.** I promise that I won't hold any chapters hostage.

Love,

EmbracingRain

P.S. **The Tawni/Chad argument was my favorite to write. I absolutely adored her pot/kettle remark.** I noticed that Chad calls Tawni Blondie when he's blonde, too. I really wanted someone to point that out, haha. **Also, Tawni punching Chad? Yeah, I have no clue where that came from. I mean, originally, I intended for Nico to punch him**, but I had Tawni do it instead. Plus, I got to write "Bitch has a nice left hook" which I have always wanted to write. It made my day.


	8. Month Seven: Reconnecting

A/N: I'll make this short and sweet:

Here's the next chapter of your double update! Thanks for being so amazing!

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything except Andrew Munroe, Chelsea, Cory Davis, and Ren and Barry's. Oh, and the mysterious boy without a name that goes cow tipping with Chad, Sonny, and Lucy. He's mine, too.

Warning: Severe speculation as to the rivalry between _So Random!_ and _Mackenzie Falls_.

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny with a Chance_ fic

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Seven

Reconnecting

* * *

**June 30th**

**3:14 p.m.**

**Andrew Munroe's House**

**Front Yard**

Chad frowned as he pulled into the driveway of a small, gray house that looked like it had been built in the early twentieth century. He double-checked the address on the GPS with the one he'd gotten from Sonny's friend Lucy only to find that they were the same as the numbers by the purple front door. Chad cut the engine of his cherry red rental car and opened the door, stepping out of the car, and then shutting the door quietly. He'd left a message on Sonny's phone telling her he was stopping by, but she'd probably deleted it.

As he was lingering in the driveway pondering over whether or not he should ring the doorbell or just leave, Sonny rounded the street corner with a shorter girl that he vaguely recognized. She had to be Lucy. After all, Lucy had told him she'd make sure Sonny was outside her brother's house at around three-fifteen this afternoon.

Talking to Sonny's best friend had given Chad a newfound confidence in his plan to get Sonny to be his friend (and sometimes fake girlfriend) again. Lucy was not only a huge fan of Chad himself, but also sure that Sonny wasn't really mad at him, just hurt and feeling as though she'd been rejected. The eager, cheerful brunette (so much like her famous best friend) was absolutely positive that Sonny would be okay talking to him face-to-face. In fact, it had been her idea for him to come out to Wisconsin in the first place. Chad had been more than willing to wait for Sonny to get back to California, but Lucy had insisted (and insisted and insisted) that Chad fly out to Sonny's home state.

Looking back on that conversation, Chad regretted giving in. The look on Sonny's face when she saw him was anything but pleased. She halted in her tracks and wrinkled her nose up in a way that Chad would have found cute had it been any other day and any other situation. She was also kind of baring her teeth.

"What are you doing here?" Sonny demanded quietly, her ire reverberating throughout her voice.

Lucy hastily stepped between Chad and Sonny before the blonde could respond to Sonny's angry question.

"I asked him to come out here," Lucy explained, much to Chad's relief. "The two of you need to talk and I'm tired of you sending all of his calls to your voicemail."

"You said you agreed with me!" Sonny accused, betrayal crossing over her face.

Lucy scuffed the toe of her shoe in the grass. "Yeah, well…I kind of lied to you. I mean, I agreed with you when you told me, but then I talked to Chad here, and…," she trailed off for a second before continuing. "Look, I've heard both sides of the story, Sonny, and the more I think about it, the more it just sounds like a huge misunderstanding."

Chad watched on as Sonny huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. "Sonny-"

"I'm _not_ talking to you," she snapped quickly.

"Aw, Sonny, he came all the way out here and-"

"I'm _not talking to him_," Sonny repeated before turning on her heel and walking up the front steps of her brother's house.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" Lucy called after her.

Sonny's shoulders sagged and she looked back at her friend. "A little bit, Luce."

"I'm just trying to help."

"I know you are."

"Will you still come to my bonfire tonight?"

Chad could almost see Sonny's heart softening. It felt good to know that Hollywood still hadn't changed her. To know that _he_ hadn't changed her.

"Of course I will. I've never missed your summer bonfire, Luce." Sonny disappeared into the house after saying this, shutting the front door behind her.

"Well, that went well," Lucy mumbled sarcastically, turning to face Chad.

"This is one of the few times in my life where I feel like this is kind of my fault," Chad joked weakly.

"It kind of _is_. We can still fix it, though."

The star of _Mackenzie Falls_ eyed his temporary partner warily. It frightened him how far he was willing to go to get Sonny Munroe back into his life. Chad prided himself on the fact that he never got attached to girls. It seemed his track record was down the tubes. He didn't like the implications in Lucy's voice, but if it got Sonny to talk to him…

"How can you possibly fix this?"

"How do you feel about bonfires?" Lucy countered thoughtfully, tapping her index finger against her chin.

It was like his words to Sonny back in March were coming back to bite him in the ass. Only, unlike how Sonny had responded to him, he couldn't turn to Lucy and tell her he was really unhappy with her and then pout until he got his way. He actually had to deal with this. He had to get Sonny back in his life; it was pitifully empty without her around for Chad to antagonize and flirt with to his heart's content. He had royally screwed up, so if the only person who was willing to help him fix the mess he'd inadvertently made was Lucy…well, then so be it. He would take her help.

Even if she sometimes got a little star struck when she was talking to him.

"I've never been to a bonfire," Chad confessed.

Lucy gaped at him. "Are you _for real_? You're Chad Dylan Cooper! You're _famous_. How can you have never been to a bonfire? What about that one on _Mackenzie Falls_?"

"Yeah…that wasn't a real one."

"Oh. Well, you can come to mine tonight. I'll make sure that Sonny's open to talking to you by then."

"If you don't mind me asking," Chad said before Lucy started walking away, "why do you care so much?"

Lucy paused in her footsteps and turned back to him. "You don't hear the way she talks about you," she said before walking away.

* * *

**June 30th**

**8:49 p.m.**

**Lucy's House**

**Backyard**

The fire was raging in its deep pit near the back of Lucy's backyard. To be honest, Chad wasn't all that blown away by the party. He still didn't get what the big deal was about having a fire and roasting marshmallows, but all of Sonny and Lucy's friends were laughing and chattering away as the sun slowly sank toward the horizon. Someone had brought along a portable dock for their iPod, and the device was currently blasting a bizarre mix of Death Cab For Cutie, Bowling For Soup, Cake, Evanescence, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Sparks from the fire sporadically burst into the air like golden fireworks and mingled with lightning bugs, lighting up the slowly darkening scene. Water splashed over the sides of the pool every now and then, and the trampoline springs creaked loudly as some teens jumped on it.

There had to be at least one-hundred and fifty people here right now, if not more. Chad had signed autographs for most of them and had even posed for pictures with some of them just to pass the time. Lucy had come by a few times to reassure him that Sonny would be by to talk to him soon, but so far that promise was unfulfilled.

Chad swallowed what was left of the grossly sour lemonade in his hand and then pitched the paper cup into the trash can on Lucy's deck. He wormed his way through the crowd of kids by the stairs so he could get to the yard, leisurely following a flagstone path to where it disappeared into the trees. Behind him, Death Cab's "Soul Meets Body" faded into Adam Sandler's "Hanukah Song," and Chad couldn't help but laugh. Whoever owned that iPod definitely seemed like they would be cool to hang out with.

"Cooper."

Chad stopped walking and turned around to see Sonny hurrying to catch up to him, her wet hair shining darkly under the lights that were wrapped around the tree trunks to outline the path. She had on a pair of cutoff shorts and her soaked, emerald green bikini top, but that was it. Chad started walking again when she caught up to him, remaining silent because he knew she would want to speak first.

"Why are you here?" Sonny asked suddenly.

"It's like Lucy told you. She asked me to come out here and talk to you in person," Chad replied, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"Yeah, I _know_," she said irritably. "But _why_?"

Chad shrugged. "So I could apologize like I've been trying to do for the past month and a half."

"I got your apology, Chad. Along with the several choice words you chose to send my way."

Chad didn't miss the bitterness in Sonny's voice, shame clamping coldly around his heart.

"I was pissed off," he said quietly.

"At me."

"No, at myself. Look, Sonny, I just want to be your friend, alright?"

"How…how am I supposed to be your friend when-when you like me, Chad?"

Chad blushed furiously, looking away from her. "I don't like you like that, Munroe. Just like I said prom night. I like you…as a friend, okay?"

He was going to go to hell for lying to her. He knew he was. Sonny Munroe was always going to be more than a friend to him, the problem was that she would never feel the same way. He screwed that up by treating her like dirt.

"But Portlyn said that you-"

"Wanted to ask you out when you moved out to Hollywood? Yeah," Chad admitted, shrugging one of his shoulders. "I did. She wouldn't let me, though."

"Why would you listen to her?" Sonny asked, stumbling slightly over one of the flagstones. Chad righted her before she could fall, letting his hand linger on her arm longer than was strictly necessary.

"Because, despite the fact that she has no ability to talk without a script whatsoever, Portlyn's kind of a scary girl. She's the one who started the rivalry in the first place. Her and that girl who you replaced. Marshall had to fire the girl you replaced because she and Portlyn got a little too physical during one of their fights."

"Why would Marshall fire Mandy and not fire Portlyn, too?" Sonny said with a confused raise of her eyebrows. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Mandy started it," Chad said simply. "Well, the physical part at least. She ended up breaking Portlyn's nose and knocking out one of her front teeth."

"You mean one of her teeth is fake?" Sonny gasped.

Chad chuckled. "Yeah." He grinned at her in the semi-darkness of the woodsy path. "See, Sonny? This is what I like. Just hanging out with you. Talking. This kinda stuff."

Sonny sighed and shook her head slightly as they paused for a moment. "Chad… I-I don't know. I mean…if you like me…"

"Whoa," Chad said holding out a hand to stop her. "Slow your roll there, Munroe. I _do not_ like you like that, alright?"

"Chad, I-"

"Seriously!" the Californian ploughed on. "I mean, I could kiss you _right now_ and I wouldn't feel _anything_."

Sonny raised a solitary eyebrow and smirked, stepping closer to him. "Oh, _really_?"

Chad felt his eyes widen and his face flush as he realized what he said. "R-really."

"Well…"

Oh, God. She was still coming closer!

"Why don't you put your _mouth _where your _mouth _is?"

All Chad could see were her eyes, and they were glowing impishly to match the half-smile on her pretty face. She had grabbed the collar of his shirt in her hands. "Um…well, technically, it's 'Put your _money_ where your-' Mmmmph!"

Chad crossed his eyes in a vain attempt to see the girl kissing him, but the attempt was fruitless. His eyes slid shut before he could even catch a glimpse of her. And as soon as his eyes closed, fireworks exploded in his mind and his skin started to tingle. He started kissing Sonny back and stepped closer to her so their bodies were flush together, not even noticing that her wet swimsuit was dampening his polo shirt. He was dimly aware of her hands fisting in his hair as one of his hands slid slowly down her back, almost getting entangled in the ties of her bikini top.

All too soon, Sonny was stepping away from him and backing up into one of the unlit trees, looking as thoroughly bewildered as Chad himself felt. It was like she hadn't meant to kiss him at all…

But damn was he happy that she had.

"Well?" Sonny demanded loudly, her chocolaty brown eyes betraying her confident façade.

"No-nothing," Chad replied, equally as loud.

Oh, he was going to hell for _sure_.

"Good! Me either."

"Good!"

"Fine."

"Fine!" Chad hollered before pausing, unsure. "So we're…good?"

Sonny laughed cheerfully before launching herself into his arms for a hug. "Oh, we're more than good, Chad. We're friends."

* * *

**July 1st**

**2:14 a.m.**

**Andrew Munroe's House**

Sonny sighed blissfully as she locked the front door of her older brother's house and shuffled into the kitchen, humming to herself.

"Aren't we just the cheerful one this morning," said a teasing voice. A tall, brunette woman shut the door of the freezer, revealing herself to Sonny. She was obviously pregnant and had a pint of Ren and Barry's in her hand.

"Hey, Chels," Sonny said, setting her purse and keys on the counter and stepping out of her Converse with a smile. "Why are you awake?"

"Midnight snack. What's got you so perky?" Chelsea asked her fiancé's younger sister, digging into the tub of ice cream with a spoon. "Anything to do with a boy?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Sonny laughed and dug a spoon out of one of the drawers, digging into the ice cream with her soon-to-be-sister-in-law. "How'd you know?"

"Sonny, the root of a girl's happiness usually lies with a boy. Not all the time, but quite often," Chelsea said with a smile. "So are you gonna spill or what?"

"…I don't know," Sonny said, scooping more ice cream into her mouth.

"Ah," the older girl's smile turned knowing. "You kissed him. Was it any good?"

"Yes," Sonny whined, dragging the one-syllable word out as she felt her insides melt like the ice cream on her spoon. "It was absolutely the _best_ kiss of my _life_."

"Was it Chad?"

Sonny nodded hopelessly, her skin tingling and the hair on her arms standing up on end as she remembered his lips against hers. The rumors didn't lie: Chad Dylan Cooper had magical lips.

"So you guys kissed and made up?" Chelsea joked, licking her spoon clean. "I knew you liked him, Sonny. So what happened then? Are you guys dating now?"

"No. We're friends," Sonny said.

"Why?"

"Well, the kiss was more like… Well, he said he could kiss me and not feel anything, right? So I said something stupid like, 'Well, why don't you put your mouth where your mouth is.' And when he went to correct me, I just… I kinda grabbed him by the collar and just…you know. Kissed him," Sonny explained, her cheeks reddening. "And when he said he didn't feel anything, I did too. I mean, it was a big fat _lie_, but he said he didn't feel anything, so I didn't want to be the loser who _did_ feel something."

Chelsea looked at Sonny, a spoonful of ice cream halted halfway to her smirking mouth.

"What?" Sonny said self-consciously, pitching her spoon into the sink.

"Nothing," Chelsea said, eating the frozen treat on her own spoon and then placing the lid back on the tub. "I just think it's cute is all."

"What? You think he felt something or…something?" Sonny asked, curious.

Chelsea shrugged and put the ice cream back into the freezer. "How should I know? I'm not Chad Dylan Cooper," she said, heading for the stairs, a hand resting on her large belly. "But I wouldn't bet on you guys staying friends for long. Night, kiddo."

* * *

**July 1st**

**2:12 p.m.**

**Andrew Munroe's House**

**Front Yard**

"So, I know I'm not as bored as I would be had you lived on a farm like I thought you did," Chad said to Sonny as they sat on the front stoop of her brother's house, "but what do you do for fun in a town _this_ small?"

Sonny looked around at him, amusement dancing in her eyes. "You thought I lived on a _farm_, Chad?"

"Well, yeah," he replied, looking sheepish. "I mean, you have that cow phone and it moos instead of ringing like a normal phone…"

"So just because my phone is cow patterned and moos you thought I came from a _farm_?" Sonny said in confusion as she tried to put two and two together. "That makes no sense, Chad. I just like cows. They're my favorite animal."

"That's weird."

"No, it's not!" Sonny said defensively. "Cows are cute and cuddly. I mean, yeah they're big and they kind of stink, but they've got those big eyes-"

"Sonny," Chad said. "I'm _bored_. What do you do for _fun_ in this town?"

Sonny frowned thoughtfully. "Well, I used to go shopping with Lucy a lot, but the mall's about forty-five minutes away. We could go to the park," she suggested.

"And do what?"

"Good point," Sonny replied with a grim smile. "Y'know…this one time, Luce and I got some of our guy friends together and we went cow tipping. We could do that tonight!"

"If cows are your favorite animals," Chad said slowly, "why would you tip them?"

"Do you not see where I live? What _else_ is there to do?"

"Can't we, like, toilet paper somebody's house?" Chad asked.

"Chad, that's vandalism."

"And cow tipping is what? Community service? C'mon, Munroe. It's only vandalism if you get caught. You've got to hate _some_body in this town enough to want to T.P. their house."

"I'm not vandalizing somebody's house," Sonny said stubbornly.

"Aww! Come on, sunshine!"

"No!"

* * *

**July 2nd**

**12:23 a.m.**

**Sonny's Neighborhood**

"I cannot _believe_ you talked me into this!" Sonny hissed over Chad's evil snickers. "Do you _realize_ how much trouble we'll get into if we get caught?!"

"Oh, come on, sunshine," Chad said with a smirk. He tossed one of the rolls of toilet paper into a tree outside the dark house. "Live a little. Walk on the wild side. Flirt with disaster!"

Sonny frowned down at the roll of paper in her hands. Despite her nagging brain, she threw it anyway. It landed perfectly in the topmost branch of another tree, unrolling itself gracefully, stark white under the light of the moon. Her heart hammering in her chest, Sonny took another cylinder from the duffle bag and launched it into the air, a sick sense of joy squeezing her insides as it looped over a branch and unrolled.

Together, she and Chad made quick work of the remaining rolls of toilet paper and then dashed quickly across the street to an empty lot in order to admire their handiwork. The entire front yard of the house was glowing eerily white. Sonny giggled along with Chad as adrenaline kept coursing its way through her system, not even minding when he looped an arm around her shoulder.

"Nice work, Munroe. Hate to say it, but you're a natural," Chad commented appreciatively. "Who's house is that anyway?"

"Cory Davis," Sonny replied, that sick satisfaction worming its way into her stomach once more. "He's one of my exes."

Chad let out a low whistle. "Damn, sunshine. Remind me to never get on your bad side."

Sonny laughed quietly. "He's had it coming for a few years now," she said quietly before taking Chad's hand and tugging him toward the street corner. "Anyway, I kept up my side of the bargain. It's time you did the same."

As soon as they reached the street corner, Lucy pulled up in her old, beat up convertible with the top down. There was a burly-looking boy in the front seat, so Chad helped Sonny into the back and then hopped in himself, only to find that there were no seatbelts. Chad looked at Sonny nervously, but she just smiled as Lucy peeled off down the street.

"Who's cows are we tipping anyways?" Chad asked Sonny as the car sped down a back road. It was a dirt road and dust was swirling up into the air.

"Lucy's uncle's stepbrother's," Sonny replied. "He's a really cool guy. He caught us once before, but he didn't really mind. He knows how boring it can be to grow up in this town."

"Have you ever actually tipped one over?"

Sonny chuckled. "Actually, cow tipping is kind of impossible, Chad. Cows don't sleep standing up and they're very aware of their surroundings. They hear us before we even get near them," she explained with a bright smile.

"So why are we even going?"

"Because it's fun to chase them!" Lucy exclaimed, grinning widely at Chad in her rearview mirror. She rounded a corner at what felt like ninety miles an hour (Chad and Sonny slid into one another due to the lack of proper restraint), whooping loudly. A few minutes down the next dirt road, she suddenly pulled off into a shallow ditch and parked her car. "You guys ready?" she asked eagerly, twisting around in her seat to better view Sonny and Chad.

Chad was shocked by the malicious smirk that crossed over Sonny's lips. Apparently, it was all the answer Lucy needed because she, Sonny, and the burly boy who hadn't said anything all leapt lithely out of the car, leaving Chad to scramble after them clumsily.

Together, the unlikely quartet approached the wooden fence on the side of the road, a series of nervous chuckles rippling through their group. Lucy and the boy hopped the fence first, tearing off across the field and leaving the two teen stars behind. Chad followed Sonny over the fence and then looked at her questioningly.

"What now?"

As if to answer his question, Lucy let out a loud Indian war whoop. Chad could see her tearing across the opposite side of the field, waving her arms frantically in the air. The boy followed after her.

Sonny rolled her eyes but smiled and grabbed Chad's hand. "C'mon, jerkthrob," she said, starting to sprint across the grassy terrain. "If I can toilet paper someone's house, you can scare the living daylights out of a cow."

As they ran across the field hand in hand toward a grouping of unsuspecting cows, Chad couldn't help but grin. He was having a blast, much to his surprise. There was definitely something to be said for making your own fun in a smaller town. Together, he and Sonny swooped silently down on a solitary cow and screamed. It mooed in a freaked out way and took off, its eyes kind of bugging out of its head.

It was three o'clock by the time they all made it back to Lucy's old convertible, each of them laughing and out of breath. Chad grinned as he helped Sonny over the fence and then into the car, his smile only widening as Lucy started the engine, pulled onto the dirt road and peeled off once more, dust spreading out behind the churning tires. The blonde wrapped his arm tighter around Sonny's shoulders as she tucked herself into his side, their laughter bubbling out of their mouths and reaching up toward the star-dusted sky.

* * *

**I hate how people constantly write that Sonny came to Hollywood off a farm. **Even if it does turn out to be true, I wanted this to be a little bit different. I mean, **I live in a small town, but I don't live on or near a farm.** Because of that, I based Sonny's hometown off of the one I'm living in now. It's not The Middle of Nowhere small, but **it's small enough that there's basically nothing to do here on weekends and stuff.** I mean, I go to the movies at least three times a month, I go bowling a couple times a week, I hang out at my friends' houses or the park, and that's about it.

**Sonny, however, **_**does**_** live near farm country **in this story. **That's why she took Chad cow tipping. **I've never been myself, but **my friend says it's pretty fun. **I'll take her word for it, haha.

**I haven't ever T.P.'ed somebody's house either. I've had the urge to, but I've never actually gone through with it.** Sonny got to live out my dream, in a way.

**As for Lucy's bonfire party, I went to one the other night and I was completely inspired. **My friend and her sister baked like a million cupcakes and the fire was _humongous_. You have no idea. Bonfires are big things where I live. People have them on a near-constant basis in the summer.

Sonny's brother (though he's not seen in this chapter) and Chelsea are a tribute to my brother and his awesome girlfriend. I'm getting a nephew from them in November. -grins-

This chapter and the next were inspired by a part of _Persuasion_ where the two main characters get a chance to sort of reconnect (hence the title) and rediscover their love for one another. The next chapter should be really fun, and I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it.

**Are you guys happy that Chad and Sonny finally kissed? I know **_**I **_**am!**

Love,

EmbracingRain

P.S. Hey, **do you guys want to hit one-hundred or one-hundred and ten reviews maybe?** I know it's a tall order, but I think you can do it! Once again, **no chapters will be held ransom.**


	9. Month Eight: Fair Amounts of Fireworks

(_EmbracingRain comes running into a room full of her reviewers, screams, and then glomps them all at once in a hysterically fantabulous way)_

**EmbracingRain:** OH. MY. GOD! You guys did it! **You surpassed one-hundred reviews! **I'm so proud of you! **I couldn't possibly thank you enough for your fantastic amounts of support. **I mean, I was gone all day and when I came home, my email was insanely full of reviews, alerts, and favorites. Even while I was writing this chapter for you guys, they kept on pouring in! **There's more of a note at the end of this chapter. **I won't keep you guys from your just reward any longer. **I do recommend that you guys read it, though. There's some important stuff in it.**

* * *

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything except for Pigeon's Point, Mrs. Kelvin, Andrew, Chelsea, and Lena the screaming girl.

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Eight

Fair Amounts of Fireworks

* * *

**July 4th**

**9:42 a.m.**

**Andrew Munroe's House**

The door was answered by a man in his early twenties. He was near six feet tall and had blackish-brown hair that was buzzed close to his scalp. Brown eyes - the same brown as Sonny's - were revealed as he took off his sunglasses. While the man was nowhere near ripped, he was still pretty muscular despite his slight frame.

"Are you Chad?" he asked after squinting down at the blonde actor for a moment or two.

"I am," Chad replied, shaking the proffered hand. "You must be Sonny's brother."

"My name's Andrew," Sonny's brother replied, stepping away from the door and gesturing Chad into the house. He shut the door and locked it as soon as Chad walked in.

Taking in Andrew's John Deere shirt and ripped jeans and the greasy ball cap that was sitting on the dining room table, Chad guessed that the elegant décor of the house wasn't Andrew's idea. The vibrant flowers in the front yard were also indicators that there was someone female in the house who wasn't Sonny herself.

Sure enough, no sooner than Chad was going to ask where Sonny was, she came thundering down the staircase with her trademark grin stretched across her brightly painted lips; she was being followed slowly by a woman near Andrew's age with shoulder-length brown hair and a very pregnant belly.

"Morning, Chad!" Sonny said cheerfully, whisking into the kitchen that was part of the open first floor of the small house.

"Hey, Sonny," Chad replied with a slight smile. He watched her pull several bottles of water from the refrigerator. "So what's the big deal about today?"

"It's your last day in Wisconsin," Sonny said with a shrug of her shoulders as she opened one of the bottles of water and handed it to the pregnant woman.

"Sonny wants to show you how us 'normal' people celebrate the Fourth of July," the older girl said. "My name is Chelsea, by the way," she added, her blue eyes twinkling merrily. "Sonny forgets to introduce me to people sometimes."

Chad smiled at her. "How do normal people celebrate the Fourth of July?"

"The girls want to go to the fair," Andrew replied, sliding the greasy hat onto his head and then placing his sunglasses on top of the hat so the rims sat on the ratty bill. "We're taking two cars. Chels and I will go in the Trans Am and Sonny will drive you in the Jeep, sound good?"

Chad shrugged, indifferent. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Good," Andrew said, turning and starting off to what Chad assumed was the back door. Sonny handed him one of the water bottles and he ruffled her hair fondly. "Thanks, kid."

Chad slowly followed the trio of brunettes through the kitchen and a cramped, cool laundry room, out a door and into a blazing hot, three car garage. Sonny plucked a set of keys off of a hook and beckoned Chad toward a black, mud-splattered Jeep.

"You be careful with that, Allison!" Andrew called over his shoulder as he helped Chelsea into the Trans Am.

Sonny chuckled as she clambered into the vehicle, Chad following her lead. "Relax, Drew! I'm not you. I don't run around playing Total the Car."

"I was seventeen and stupid, kid. Not much different than you. So _be careful_, you got it?"

Chad couldn't help but smile as he watched Sonny teasingly salute her brother then shut the driver's side door and slide the key into the ignition. "You ready?" she asked, rolling down the windows and motioning to her brother to pull out of the garage first. "This is your first Wisconsin fair."

"Is it different than any other fair?" Chad asked, an amused tone coloring his voice.

"I don't honestly know," Sonny said with a smile as she pulled the Jeep out of the garage, navigated it down the driveway, then pulled into the street. "I've always had fun, though. That's gotta count for something, right?"

"Sure," Chad said. He watched her concentrate on the road for a few moments. Even in jean shorts, a plain black t-shirt, and grungy Converse tennis shoes with her hair loose and flowing around her face, she still managed to look gorgeous. "You and your brother are-"

"Complete opposites?" Sonny finished with a smirk, rotating the steering wheel so the Jeep turned right. "Yeah, I know. He's my favorite person on the face of the planet, though."

"Didn't you say he was an astrophysics major back in December?" Chad asked.

"'Was' being the key word," Sonny replied, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "That was four years ago when he was nineteen. He switched schools and changed his major the art history."

"That's about a one-eighty if I've ever heard of one," Chad said.

"My brother is very smart," Sonny told him. "Plus, he's fantastic when it comes to drawing. Especially cars. But the art history thing didn't last too long. He dropped out of college altogether and enrolled in the police academy."

"He's a _cop_?" Chad said incredulously.

"Not yet. He's graduating at the end of the month. Which is a good thing. He needs to support Chels and the baby somehow."

"Is it an oops baby?"

"No, they planned the pregnancy. It's just that, at the time, they didn't realize they'd want to get married, too. My brother tends to do things kind of…backwards."

"Are you excited?"

"Of course I am!" Sonny said, looking over at Chad in surprise. "Who _wouldn't_ be excited about getting a niece or nephew?"

"I meant about getting a sister," Chad said. "I don't have any brothers or sisters, so I don't know if it's a big deal. It kinda seems like it would be."

Sonny hesitated. "…Yeah. I'm pretty excited. I mean, Chelsea's one of the sweetest people I've ever met and she's been really good for Drew. I just…I really kind of… Well, I just…hate her sister!"

Chad gaped at Sonny. It was actually possible for Sonny to hate someone?

"You might want to hold onto your seat," Sonny instructed him as the Jeep crossed over from a paved pathway of sorts and onto a vast field of grass.

Chad clutched at the sides of his seat as the car lurched uneasily over the hilly terrain while Sonny searched for a place to park. When she found a space big enough for her brother's car, she pulled in and rolled up the windows, cutting the engine.

"You hate her sister?" Chad exclaimed.

"She hates me back," Sonny said defensively. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'd be able to stand her if she wasn't such a snot."

"I find it hard to believe that you actually, seriously hate someone," Chad told her as they climbed out of the Jeep and into the humid July air.

"Yeah, well, how about we don't talk about it right now," Sonny said with a bright smile as she waved to Andrew and Chelsea who were slowly making their way over. "Chelsea doesn't know that her sister and I hate each other, and I'd really like to keep it that way for right now."

"Why?"

"It would hurt her feelings! God, Chad. I didn't think you were _that_ heartless. She's _pregnant_. You always spare the pregnant girl's feelings."

* * *

**July 4th**

**11:56 a.m.**

**The Fair**

**Main Walkway**

"Is it me or is this fair doing morbidly slow business?" Chad said to Sonny as they passed yet another cotton candy stand. The smell of funnel cakes was starting to make him feel sick.

"Give it another two hours," Sonny replied, pulling out her mooing cell phone, "and this fair will be crawling with thousands of people."

"How long are we going to stay? No offense, but the smell of funnel cakes is kind of getting to me."

"Well," Sonny said, sliding her phone back into the pocket from which it had come, "that depends on when Lucy gets here. And that should be about an hour and a half before the fireworks start."

"I thought Lucy was your best friend."

"She is," Sonny said, pausing by a game stall and pondering it for a few seconds before moving on to the next one. "But she also decided to tell her cousin Lena that you and I are at the fair and Lena's got the biggest mouth ever. We'll be mobbed by people as soon as Lucy and Lena get here." She placed a dollar on the wooden counter of the stall. "Hey, Mrs. Kelvin. Can I get a round of darts?"

"Sonny Munroe!" the rotund woman behind the counter exclaimed, exchanging Sonny's dollar for three darts. "It sho' is nice ta see ya back, baby doll. How's Hollywood bin treatin' ya?"

"Pretty well," Sonny said with a smile. Chad watched on as one of the darts left her hand and collided with one of the many balloons tacked to a piece of corkboard. The balloon popped loudly. "This is my friend Chad Dylan Cooper."

"Well, sho'! I know who he is, baby doll! You ain't gotta tell me. How'd ya do, Mistah Coopah? Well, golly gee, Sonny! Look atchu! One mo' an' ya get a prize."

Just as Sonny was about to throw her third and final dart, her phone started mooing again. She thrust the tiny dart into Chad's hand and he looked at her, completely bewildered.

"Take my last turn," she urged him.

Chad turned to the woman behind the counter. "Am I allowed to do that?" he asked uncertainly.

"Sho' 'nuff, Sweetie. Anyfin' fo' a friend of Sonny Munroe."

Chad internally winced at the word 'friend' but hid his contempt. He contemplated the dart in his hand, the wall of balloons, and then the wall of prizes. "If I win," he said slowly, "can I get that?"

Mrs. Kelvin followed his finger to the prize he was indicating, hooting loudly when she saw it. "Ya betcha ass ya can, Sweetie!"

Chad had never had a complete stranger call him Sweetie before, so it was certainly a bit of a shock for him to hear the word 'ass' thrown into that sentence along with it so casually. He took a deep breath, aimed for a balloon, and threw the dart. His aim was poor, but he lucked out and the dart nicked the green balloon he'd been aiming for, popping it loudly. Mrs. Kelvin hooted with laughter once more, handing over the prize he'd indicated.

Chad felt a little bit more than stupid standing there with the oversized stuffed animal in his arms, but when Sonny turned around to see that he'd picked her out a cow of all things, the look on her face was definitely worth it.

* * *

**July 4th**

**12:33 p.m.**

**The Fair**

**Picnic Shelter**

"Cute cow, kiddo," Chelsea commented when Sonny and Chad approached a restaurant-esque picnic shelter . "Where'd you get that?"

"Mrs. Kelvin's stand," Sonny replied, setting her stuffed cow on a picnic table and sitting down. "Chad got it for me."

"You won my sister a _cow_, Cooper?" Andrew said, looking thoroughly unimpressed as he set down a tray of food on the table.

"Acutally," Chad said, much to Sonny's surprise, "Sonny did most of the work. I just threw the third dart for her when she answered her phone. She told me she likes cows so I got her the cow."

Sonny raised an eyebrow as she took her slice of pizza and one of the cans of Coke from the tray, wondering when it would cease to amaze her that, when it came to her at least, Chad always gave her her credit where it was due. Somewhere down the line, he had stopped being such a jerk to her and had actually started being a decent person. It was kind of a weird thing to get used to.

"I think it's a cute cow," Chelsea said sweetly. She picked up a bottle of hot sauce and began splashing it onto her slice of pizza. "How's it been going? Any screaming fans following you guys around?"

"Not yet," Sonny replied.

"What does that mean?" Andrew asked as he folded his own slice of pizza in half and bit into it.

"Lucy told her cousin Lena that Chad and I are here."

"Lena's the one who can't keep her mouth shut, right? I can't stand that girl."

"She's not _that_ bad," Sonny said.

"You won't be saying that after you get mobbed."

* * *

**July 4th**

**9:01 p.m.**

**The Fair**

**Near the 4-H Building**

The acting duo was on their way to meet Andrew and Chelsea in the 4-H building when the screaming started. It was the blood curdling, bone chilling type of scream that came out of horror movies and the freakiest of nightmares. It made the hair on the back of Chad's neck stand up as Sonny suddenly grabbed his hand, squeezing the cold, clammy appendage tightly.

It was coming from a preteen girl with an unnatural tan, huge sunglasses perched on top of her bleach blonde head, and shockingly white teeth. She was standing next to Lucy who looked thoroughly humiliated and regretful

"_**OH, MY GAWDDDDD!!!**_" the blonde girl shrieked, pointing one ridiculously perfectly manicured nail at Chad and Sonny who had frozen in their footsteps. "_**IT'S CHAD DYLAN COOPER AND SONNY MUNROE!!!**_" This was followed up by another blood curdling scream that soon multiplied in both number and volume as other teens, preteens, children, and even some adults joined in.

Chad stared wide-eyed at Sonny who breathed one word of advice to him:

"_Run._"

Chad didn't have to be told twice, he started yanking Sonny toward the gate they had entered through, praying the entire time that neither of them tripped. If the way the screams were following them was any indication, there was a stampede of fanatic people behind them.

The volunteers at the ticket counter by the gate gaped at the commotion as Chad and Sonny sprinted past and the cops who were aiding in parking cars stared for a moment, too, before leaping into action. By the time Sonny and Chad reached Andrew's Jeep, they were both out of breath and wide-eyed. As they scrambled into the car, Sonny chucked her cell phone at Chad who caught it somewhat clumsily.

"Text my brother and tell him all the screaming was about us so we left and we're on our way to Pigeon's Point," she commanded, shoving her stuffed cow into the back seat and jamming the key into the Jeep's ignition.

Chad hurriedly complied, his mouth dropping open when he chanced a glance back to where the mob was being held back by countless cops and volunteers for the fair. No matter how many times people freaked out about him in public and no matter how many times he pretended to be cool about it, he still could never get over the sensation people made.

"I think we just made your entire town's day," he commented dryly as Sonny slammed her foot down on the gas pedal upon reaching the regular road once more.

"No shit," Sonny replied, equally as sarcastic. "It's not every day two celebrities grace a small town fair with their presence."

"Is that sarcasm I detect in your voice, Munroe?"

"You started it."

"Did not!"

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Did too."

"I did _not_!"

"Oh, you so did."

"No I didn't. You're being stupid, Sonny."

"Don't call me stupid, Cooper."

"Hey, I call 'em like I see 'em. Don't be a sissy."

"I'm not being a sissy, Chad. You're just being an insensitive pig like usual," Sonny hissed, making Chad squeak womanishly when she abruptly took a left hand turn on red, barely making it through the intersection before a semi blew past.

"Holy shit! Slow down, Munroe! You're going to kill us both and nobody's even following us! Let up on the gas!" Chad demanded of her.

"Relax, Chad! I know what I'm doing, alright?"

Sonny's phone mooed, interrupting their argument.

"It's Tawni," Chad told her.

"Put it on speakerphone, please."

Chad did so, but Sonny didn't even have time to say hello before Tawni was screaming down the line.

"Oh, my _gawd_! I saw it on the news. Are you okay?! What's going on now? Why are you with _Chad_? I _punched_ him for you, Sonny! Kyle broke up with me for that! How could you _do _this to me?!" Tawni wailed.

"Tawni, I can't really talk right now," Sonny said through gritted teeth. "I'll call you back when I'm not getting ready to go off-roading, okay?"

"Off-roading?!" Chad yelped as Sonny plucked her phone from his hand and hung up on a loudly protesting Tawni.

"That's what this thing is made for," Sonny replied, shifting the steering wheel to a sharp right so the Jeep veered jerkily off the road and onto the grassy shoulder.

"Sonny, you're heading right for the trees!"

"Relax, Chad. I know what I'm doing, alright?"

Chad, completely tense, squeezed his eyes shut as Sonny pushed the gas pedal to the floor and urged the black vehicle toward a wall of trees, anticipating the hideous, inevitable crash that would ultimately end his life. When there was no screaming crunch of metal or ear shattering explosion, Chad cracked open one baby blue eye to see trees whizzing past him and no sign of any danger at all.

When Sonny slowed to a stop in a clearing and put the Jeep into par then cut the engine, Chad turned to her with wide eyes. "You're completely crazy!" he exclaimed. "Do you realize that you could've killed us, Munroe?"

"Oh, save it, Chad," Sonny shot back. "It was no worse than you driving on the highway, alright?"

"Where are we anyway?" Chad asked, changing the subject as they hopped out of the car. His driving skills were not up for discussion (after all, why criticise something that was so perfect?).

"On our way to Pigeon's Point," Sonny replied, beckoning for him to follow her through the trees. There was a slight path worn into the ground.

"What is _that_?"

"Pigeon's Point is like Lookout Mountain, except people don't come here to make out," Sonny explained. "My brother and his friends had a couple parties back here in high school, but mostly it's just a really cool place to swim. Plus, it's a great place to watch the fireworks from."

The path came to an abrupt halt where the trees thinned out, and Chad followed Sonny into a large clearing by a rippling lake. The sandy ground gave way easily beneath his feet and a couple twigs snapped as he treaded on them. The moon hung brightly in the sky surrounded by a few faint constellations. It was actually one of the prettiest places he had been to.

There was a loud boom in the sky overhead, and Chad looked up to see a red explosion of sparks light up the night. He grimaced as Sonny started pulling him into the lake to where a large boulder sat just off the sandy banks. She hadn't even given him time to roll up his designer jeans or take off his Italian sneakers!

Another series of sparks lit up the sky (these ones were green) as Sonny made herself comfortable on the boulder, patting the cold granite surface as an indication for Chad to join her. He reluctantly sat down next to her. The boulder was a little to small for his liking; he couldn't help but shudder as tingles ran up his spine when his and Sonny's arms brushed.

"So when are you going to call Tawni back?"

Sonny sighed. "Probably tomorrow when I have a lot of free time to yell at me for agreeing to be friends with you," she replied. "She's not going to be happy that I hung up on her either."

"I'm sure she'll get over it," Chad told Sonny over the explosion of several fireworks.

Sonny laughed slightly, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. "The last time you said that, Chad, she punched you. Does Tawni _really_ seem like the type of girl to get over something?"

"Good point," Chad said, riveting his eyes to the bursts of color filling the velvety sky. For a small town, the people around here really could put on a good show. It wasn't the most spectacular display he'd ever seen, but the beauty of the sparks was undeniable. Especially when Sonny looked around at him and he could see the blasts of color reflected in her deep brown eyes.

"Thanks for listening to Lucy, Chad," she said to him. "I'm really glad you came out here and knocked some sense into me. You're a really good friend, you know?"

"I don't know about that, Munroe. I'm sure you've had better friends than people like me," Chad replied, surprised at how humble he sounded. It seemed like being around Sonny so much was starting to change him back to Chad from Chad Dylan Cooper. It was an interesting transition to be going through.

"No, Chad. Really," Sonny said earnestly, covering his hand with one of her own. "I'm really glad we're friends now."

"Yeah," Chad said quietly, watching as she looked back at the brilliant show taking place above their heads. "Friends. Me too."

* * *

So, **this chapter was not only inspired by **_**Persuasion**_**, but by my town's fair as well. **I went two weeks ago with my friend who just had the bonfire party, and I had an absolute blasty blast (in the words of Dane Cook, whom I just so happened to name my blue-screen-of-death-contracting laptop after)! We spent most of the time watching her sister barrel race, but we also ate some of the best apple pie on the face of the planet. Seriously, it was the _greatest_. The smell of funnel cakes and elephant ears was a little overpowering, though. It made me feel sick.

Fortunately, I did _not_ get chased down by a crazed mob of people because I am not a celebrity.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that I'm not a celebrity, I didn't get chased down by a mob of people so I couldn't escape to an awesome place like Pigeon's Point.

I did, however, see an amazingly hot guy at Subway. That's a plus, right? I think so. Oh, and I also saw this kid _totally_ eat it on his bike. My friend and I were sitting at a stoplight and this kid came speeding up on his bike and he, like, hit his brakes too suddenly or something because when the bike stopped, he kept going. He literally flipped right over the front of the handlebars of his bike. When he got back on, he went to keep going the way he was originally headed, but then he turned around and went back the way he came from. I was laughing so hard. You honestly have no idea.

Wow, I really got off topic there.

Anyhoo!

**I'm trying to finish this story really soon because I start college Monday of next week and I want to make sure I make the deadline for Dancing on Rainbows.' challenge. Plus, I really don't want to leave you guys without updates. That's not fair. We've got four more months to go**, so hopefully you guys won't have to wait very long for updates.

**I would absolutely adore hitting two-hundred reviews by the time this story is over**, but I think **it'd be really cool if you guys hit one-hundred and forty this chapter.** I promise that I won't hold chapters hostage. If I don't get out the next chapter ASAP, you know what's going on and hopefully you won't hold your reviews hostage in retaliation.

Love,

EmbracingRain

P.S. Who else loved "Sonny in the Kitchen With Dinner"? I did! I loved how Chad came over to save her, haha.


	10. Month Nine: Awkward August

A/N: I didn't hold this chapter hostage like I promised you guys I wouldn't. I updated as soon as I could. My college had this ridiculous thing Thursday through Saturday that was like a second orientation. I was not feeling it at all. While I love the fact that I'm a college student now, I do not enjoy the forty-five minute commute I have (that's one way). A little advice, kiddos? Choose a college far from home. Commuting is a pain in the butt. I love my school, but the drive is a bit terrible.

**By the way, you guys are awesome because you reached one-hundred and forty-four reviews which was four more than I was hoping for! Thanks, once again, for being so amazing!**

More of a note on the bottom.

* * *

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything except for the 'Mackenzie Stalls' skit idea.

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Nine

Awkward August

* * *

**August 2nd**

**9:18 a.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random!**_** Set**

**Sonny and Tawni's Dressing Room**

"Knock, knock!" Chad said loudly as he threw open the door to Tawni's side of the dressing room. He held his hands protectively in front of his face as he entered, but when no shoes or tubes of lip gloss or other girlish things assailed him, he lowered his hands slowly, testing the waters. Tawni was nowhere in sight, but neither was Sonny.

Chad frowned, taking in Sonny's rain-dampened sweater that was draped over the back of Tawni's hideous chaise lounge chair and the music that was blasting from the stereo system by Tawni's makeup table.

"Sonny?" he called a little louder after turning the music down. Maybe she hadn't heard him. "You in here?"

Coming to a halt in his pacing steps in front of the orange couch (he'd never seen anything so tacky in his life. Aside from Tawni's weird leopard chair that Sonny's sweater was sitting on), Chad paused to scratch his head in bewilderment.

"Sonny?" he said again.

"Hi, Chad," the brunette in question replied brightly, her head appearing over the back of the couch.

Chad jumped back in surprise, letting out an appropriate - although particularly inarticulate - shout of, "GAH!" His hand went automatically to his chest as he fought off the scare Sonny had given him. "Jesus, Munroe! What the hell are you doing back there?"

"Sorry," she apologized, standing up and holding up something small and glittery. "I was looking for the new charm you sent me. I dropped it when I went to put it on my bracelet. I thought you heard me when I said hi back. I didn't expect you to freak out like that!"

"Do you need help putting the charm on?" Chad offered, purposefully ignoring Sonny's mention of his stupid reaction to her sudden appearance.

"Sure," she said, walking around to Chad's side of the couch and sitting down on it. Chad sat down too when she patted the cushions expectantly. "How was the rest of your break from filming?" Sonny asked as Chad took her wrist gently in his hand, found an empty link on her charm bracelet, and began twisting the new charm onto it.

Chad shrugged, concentrating more on Sonny's pulse leaping erratically under his fingertips than her words. Either she was really nervous, really excited, or she just had some sort of irregular heartbeat. "Fine," he replied thoughtlessly. "Boring."

"You obviously had some time on your hands."

Chad's eyes flickered to where Sonny's free index finger (she had painted her nails a bright electric pink) gently touched the other two charms he'd gotten for her upon coming back to Los Angeles. One of them was a tiny replica of a Chinese takeout box, the memory of their evening watching _Bones_ and eating Chinese food coming to his mind when he'd seen it in the store (the funny bone was another part of this memory: a play on the name of the show and the fact that Sonny was, quite possibly, one of the funniest people Chad had met). The second was a tiny carving of Wisconsin, land of cheese.

"You don't like them?" he asked her, pulling his hands away from her wrist to reveal the tiny little cow now dangling from the silver links of her bracelet. God, was he happy she was wearing it again or _what_?

"No, I _do_," Sonny said earnestly. Chad watched, enthralled, as a faint pink blush spread across her cheeks. "It's just that…," here she wrinkled her nose in embarrassment before continuing. "Well, you're kind of…spoiling me, Chad."

"They're _charms_," Chad said defensively, a little bit hurt. "I got you the bracelet, can't I buy you charms for it?"

"Chad," Sonny replied pragmatically, "you're the _only_ person buying charms for this bracelet."

"Is that a problem or something?" he asked stupidly. If he was the only person buying her things, he could see how she might feel a little bit spoiled. Kind of. Most girls were ecstatic when he bought them things. Granted, he'd never dropped all kinds of money on silly little pieces of silver for them.

"Tawni says that the lock charm is from Tiffany's, Chad," Sonny said quietly.

Chad blinked at her; he was at a complete loss for words. How had he _not_ foreseen Blondie noticing that?! She was like a spoiled little princess! She was bound to notice a piece from Tiffany's!

"Please tell me she was lying, Chad," the comedienne in front of him pleaded.

"Yeah…" Chad said slowly. "See, I can't do that."

"Why not?" she demanded, her eyes frantically combing his face.

"I promised myself I wouldn't lie to you anymore, Munroe! So what if I got you something from Tiffany's! I thought you liked the charms!"

"I do!"

"Then why does it matter where they come from?" Chad bellowed, really regretting ordering the next charm now. Especially since he couldn't send it back.

"Because you shouldn't be spending that much money on me!" Sonny exclaimed, standing up. "I mean, we're friends, Chad! _Friends_, okay? Friends don't just go around spending hundreds of dollars on each other for _no reason_. I told you already: I can't be your friend if you like me like _that!_"

"Oh, my God, Munroe!" Chad hollered, leaping up from the couch like it was on fire. "I don't like you! Get it through your head!"

"Do I have to punch you again, Pooper Scooper?"

Chad and Sonny whirled around in tandem to see Tawni standing in her doorway in all of her blonde, sparkly glory. She was sneering evilly and had her arms crossed over her chest, hiding the letters on her cheerleading uniform.

"I don't have a boyfriend right now, so I'll do it," Tawni threatened, stepping further into the room and slamming the door behind her.

"It's okay, Tawni," Sonny said resignedly. "It's not what it sounds like. Chad and I were just…arguing about my bracelet. What are you doing here? I thought you were rehearsing the 'Dolphin Boy' sketch with Grady and Nico."

"We finished," Tawni said, still eyeing Chad in a thoroughly unnerving manner. "Marshall sent me to get you for the 'Mackenzie Stalls' rehearsal."

"You mean_ Mackenzie Falls_," Chad corrected her, raising a confused eyebrow.

"No, I don't, Pooper. I said stalls and I meant stalls." Rolling her eyes, Tawni swept into her changing stall, wrenching the spotted curtain closed behind her. "He's really stupid, Sonny. I'd stop hanging out with him if I were you. It might be contagious!"

"Why are you spoofing my show?" Chad queried, turning to Sonny only to find her sporting a black blazer and a black and red tie.

Sonny shrugged, picking up a script from her makeup table, then opening her door to the dressing room. Chad followed her down the hallway, feeling somewhat like a lost puppy following someone who's heart said puppy intended to steal.

"When we did a sketch satirizing all of the shows in the studio for our season finale, our fans went crazy over the 'Mackenzie Stalls' portion," Sonny explained. "Marshall thought it would be a good idea for us to bring it back, and he asked Nico and me to keep on coming up with ideas for the sketch."

"Why you and Nico? Why not just you?"

Sonny looked up at him, a secretive smile on her face. "Do you think you can keep a secret?" she asked, coming to a stop and placing a hand on Chad's bicep.

"I think I can manage," Chad said dryly but still intrigued. He was about to ask Sonny what kind of secret was so important that she was checking to see that the hall was otherwise deserted when she suddenly yanked him through a door…

…and into a custodial closet.

An overwhelming sense of déjà vu washed over the blonde actor, but he shrugged it off. At least he could _move_ in this closet.

He heard a click and light suddenly washed over the tiny space. Sonny was grinning up at him in a very uninhibited way; her hand was still curled around his arm. Chad wondered if she knew that she was actually stroking his arm with her thumb. She probably didn't.

"You're not the only one who's friends with a Random," Sonny said in a giddy but quiet voice.

Chad gaped at her. "You're kidding me! Who?"

"Portlyn and Nico," Sonny said, her smile turning into a smirk.

"Well, that's…insanely hypocritical," Chad commented. He raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Are you sure, Sonny? I mean, Portlyn befriending a Random? That's a little…far-fetched."

"I'm completely serious," she replied.

"_How_ serious?"

"As a heart attack. Why?"

"Because that's _great_ blackmail!" Chad exclaimed. "That's the best dirt I've ever gotten on one of my costars."

Sonny wrinkled her nose and narrowed her eyes at him. "You blackmail your friends?"

Chad froze. "No," he answered honestly. "Blackmailing Portlyn just sounds like good times. I mean, now that I know this, I can get her to do _anything_. She doesn't know anything about me that can possibly beat this. Besides, the _Mackenzie Falls_ cast? Yeah, not really the 'friends' type of people."

"I don't care what kind of people they are," Sonny said, shaking her head and crossing her arms over her chest. "You can't blackmail Portlyn with the fact that she and Nico are friends."

"Why not?" Chad whined.

"Well, for one, Nico doesn't even know that I know that he and Portlyn are friends. And I don't know if I want him to know that I know. Number two, if you and I can be…friends-"

Chad winced, hoping she wouldn't notice.

"-who's to say that they can't either? I mean, if everyone just starts getting along with one another-"

"They won't," Chad told her. "I can assure you of that right now. Our casts will never get along again."

A loud moo interrupted their conversation, and Sonny cursed softly when she looked at the screen of her phone.

"I'm late," she declared, opening the closet door and stepping out into the hallway, Chad hot on her heels. "Marshall's probably getting mad."

"Can I watch?" Chad asked her as they hurried down the halls to the stage where Sonny was supposed to be rehearsing.

"Watch what?"

"The skit."

Sonny looked up at him, confusion written in her eyes. "Don't you have scenes to film?" she questioned as they walked through the open door and onto the set.

Chad shrugged, taking in the empty stadium seats and silent cameras. There was a set similar to the _Mackenzie Falls_ schoolyard set that Chad worked on. "I don't have another scene to film until after lunch," he informed her. "Why? Will your friends be mad if I hang out with you?"

"No," Sonny said, shaking her head. "I talked to them. I just figured you had some sort of important 'Falls' business to take care of or something. You can watch if you want."

"Should I stand? Should I sit?"

"Since when do you ask people to tell you what to do?" Sonny asked, the rhetoric clear in her voice. She pointed to a chair near where Marshall Pike was sitting, poring over a script. "You can sit in my chair. Hey, Marshall," she said to the slightly balding man in the director's chair. "Sorry I'm late."

"_There_ you are, Sonny!" Marshall exclaimed in his slightly congested voice (Chad wondered if Marshall had some sort of perpetual cold). "I was getting worried! I thought-"

Here, his watery, blood-shot eyes finally landed on Chad who waved at him in a pitifully awkward way.

"Ch-Chad Dylan Cooper," Marshall choked out. He looked back at Sonny. "What happened? Why is he here? Did I lose a bet or something?"

"He's just here to observe," Sonny said, shrugging.

"What? Why?" Marshall's eyes flicked in a panicked manner between the blonde who had made himself comfortable and the brunette who had told him where to sit.

"Oh, see, Sonny and I are friends now," Chad explained somewhat condescendingly. "I don't have any scenes to film, so I thought I'd swing by and check out what's going on."

Sonny, apparently satisfied with Chad's handling of the situation, smiled happily and walked off to join her castmates who were each scanning over their scripts.

"I don't like this Cooper," Marshall said, glaring at Chad out of the corner of his eye. "You never come to the _So Random!_ set unless you're yelling at one of my stars. Mostly Sonny."

Chad shrugged, settling back into Sonny's chair. It was surprisingly comfortable. And it smelled nice, too. Sort of sweet and…flowery. Like Sonny's perfume. "Sonny and I are friends now. She's fine with me being here," he said.

Marshall sort of groaned uneasily then lifted his megaphone to his mouth. "Action!"

Zora, Tawni, Nico, and Sonny scurried off the set, but Grady stayed, adjusting his tie as a voice track started to play.

"_This week on…_ Mackenzie Stalls_…"_

Tawni dashed onto the set to where Grady was standing, poorly attempting a dramatic face as he sat at a wooden picnic table.

"I have done it!" Tawni exclaimed in a loud voice as she punched a fist into the air overdramatically. "DeShawn, I have broken into…Mackenzie Stalls." The last two words were punctuated by a dramatic look to where the audience would be seated.

"Excellent work, Priscilla," Grady thundered, standing up from the picnic table. "Mackenzie Stalls…" Another dramatic look to the audience, this time by Grady. "Shall soon be…MINE!"

Chad raised an intrigued eyebrow. This could get interesting. It was obvious the Randoms were overacting, but he'd never seen people overact so _well_.

"Come," Grady said grandly, throwing an arm around Tawni's shoulders. "We celebrate, Priscilla!"

As the blonde pair (an unlikely pair at that) exited the set, Tawni simpering in a sickening manner, Sonny started tugging Nico onto the scene. Nico was staring off into space with a vacant sadness on his face, while Sonny looked positively devastated. Zora dashed through the scene, bawling her eyes out as she ran. Chad choked back laughter he didn't realize was coming. There was always the girl who bawled her eyes out on his show. Always.

"But if we don't go to class, Mackenzie," Sonny declared loudly as she tugged on Nico's arm, "Daddy won't let me go skiing in Acapulco! Don't you want me to go skiing, Mackenzie, so I can get lost in an accident?"

"Oh, look, Rainier!" Nico said loudly and mechanically, pointing in a random direction, the blank look still on his face. "A puppy! You like puppies!"

Sonny (or 'Rainier,' if you were going by character names) looked around in interest, squealing giddily. When no puppy presented itself, she turned back to Nico (who was playing Mackenzie).

"Quit stalling, Mackenzie! That's all you ever do!"

Zora ran back through the scene, still bawling her eyes out.

"If I get captured by evil scientists, what happens? Mackenzie stalls!" Sonny ranted, stomping her foot. "If your evil half-brother and that Priscilla girl cut off my hair and I ask for extensions, what happens? Mackenzie stalls!"

Nico gasped harshly, pulling a cell phone from his pocket. "Hush, Rainier! I've gotten a text message from my evil half-brother, DeShawn! Mackenzie Stalls…," he looked dramatically to the nonexistent audience, "…has been broken into!"

Sonny gasped as well, pressing her hand to her mouth. "Screw skiing in Acapulco!" she declared passionately. "Let's go find those jerks and then make hot, steamy…"

Chad's jaw dropped open and he felt his eyes bug out of their sockets.

"…bowls of soup!"

_Bowls of soup? Okay, we're not that stupid on _Mackenzie Falls_…are we?_

"What? That is to say…I don't… Look, Rainier!" Nico exclaimed, pointing to a tree branch. "A dolphin!"

Sonny screamed loudly, stomping her foot once more before fleeing from the set, leaving Nico to stare dramatically off into space by himself.

Marshall chuckled. "Clever kids," he muttered before lifting his megaphone to his mouth once more. "Cut! One more time, kids. And, Zora, this time to be a little more dramatic and scene-stealing with your tears, alright? Good… Action!"

* * *

**August 2nd**

**10:54 a.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random!**_** Prop House**

"So, what did you think?" Sonny asked Chad as they entered the crowded prop house. She shrugged out of her black blazer and took off her tie, draping both on the coat hook by the door before flopping down on the couch.

Chad made himself comfortable next to her, propping his feet on the table before answering. "I thought it was funny," he told her with a smile. "Did you and Nico write all of that?"

"Of course we did, Chad," Sonny replied, rolling her eyes good naturedly. "We _have_ brains, you know."

"Really?" Chad teased her, taking hold of her ear gently and pretending to look into it. "Are you sure about that, Munroe? Because I don't see anything in your head here. Looks pretty empty to me," he reported.

Sonny pushed him away, laughing softly. "Get off of me, you dork."

"You _like_ it," Chad said a bit more flirtatiously than he had intended to, waggling his eyebrows. He poked her gently in the stomach, eliciting an unwilling giggle from her throat.

"Don't you _dare_, Chad," Sonny hissed, glaring at him in warning as a smile threatened to cross her lips.

Chad paid her no heed and tackled her to the couch cushions instead, straddling her waist as he tickled her. The brunette shrieked with laughter as Chad's fingertips danced over her ribcage, her own hands struggling in vain to fight him off. Chad snickered quietly as he tickled her, surprised when she finally caught his hands in hers and looked up at him with a mysterious expression in her big brown eyes.

"Sonny, what are you- OOMPH!"

Blinking up at Sonny from where he lay on the floor completely dumbfounded, Chad gawked at her as she smirked down at him triumphantly, pinning his hands to the floor of the prop house with her own.

"_Now_ look who's on top," she said, her victory ringing loudly in her voice.

The star of _Mackenzie Falls_ raised one naughty eyebrow as he returned her smirk while saying, "Ohhh. I get it, Munroe. You're one of _those_ girls."

Sonny's cheeks turned a brilliant scarlet as she started to stammer, releasing one of his hands.

Chad shushed her, pressing the index finger of his free hand to her lips. "Hey, that's fine with me," he continued on, enjoying the adorable way she was struggling to find the words to say. "If you want to be on top-"

"Awww, God! My _ears_ and _eyes!_" Nico hollered in disgust causing Sonny to scramble off of a very disappointed Chad. "Why, God? _Why_?"

Chad slowly stood up, righting his clothes and avoiding Sonny's eyes. She was doing a good job at the same actions. They both cowed under Nico's accusatory finger and wailing questions to God.

"Y'know, just 'cause we're all _fine_ with you two bein'…whatever it is you _are_," Nico ranted, still holding one of his hands over his eyes, "doesn't mean we wanna walk in and _see_ it. Keep it in ya pants!" He exited the room blindly, patting the walls with his free hand to guide his way.

Chad cleared his throat as Sonny awkwardly bounced on the balls of her feet, both still avoiding eye contact with one another.

"Well," Chad managed to get out, embarrassed at the way his voice broke on the one-syllable word. "That was…"

"…Awkward," Sonny completed quietly.

"Yeah," Chad sighed, running a hand through his normally perfect hair. "I-I think I'll just…go. And stuff. They probably need me…at the Falls."

"Yeah, that's…good," she said as he walked towards the door of the cluttered prop house. "Hey, Chad?" He turned around with a raised eyebrow. "How about we _never_ talk about this again?"

Chad chuckled slightly. "You read my mind, Munroe," he said before walking away and leaving a very flustered Sonny in his wake.

* * *

**August 15th**

**6:53 p.m.**

**Sonny's Apartment**

_You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it eight and a half years ago. Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than a woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant._

Sonny groaned when her cell phone abruptly started mooing, cutting off her perusal of Wentworth's letter to Anne. She set the well-worn book on her coffee table, the pages naturally falling where she left them.

"Hello?" she said, annoyed overtones clinging to the tremor of her voice.

"Sonny, I'm _bored_."

"_Again_, Chad?" Sonny sighed. "Do you always have to call me when you're bored? Can't you find something to do?"

"Well…what are you doing right now?" Chad countered.

"Why do you want do know?" Sonny asked suspiciously.

"…Just curious."

"You're going to come over again, aren't you?"

"Who said anything about going to? I'm already here, Munroe!"

"You're _kidding_ me," Sonny said, rolling off her couch and padding over to the door in her fuzzy slippers. "Oh, good God. You _are_ here!" she whined as she peered through the peephole.

"Yeah, and I brought Chinese!" Chad replied, and Sonny saw him hold up a box of takeout much like the one he'd brought over in March. "So, c'mon. Let me in!"

"One condition."

"What?"

"This isn't going to end in any more stupid fake dates, is it?"

"That's a question, not a condition."

"Chad."

"No, it won't. Unless you ask me. I still owe you one."

Sonny rolled her eyes and hung up her phone before answering the door only to see Chad staring at the screen of his phone in confusion. He looked up at her with wide eyes when the door opened.

"You hung up on me!"

"What's the point in using a phone when you're right on the other side of the door?" Sonny retorted. "Can't you knock like a normal person?"

"Why act normal when you don't have a normal friendship with the girl who's apartment you're at?" Chad said with a smirk as he walked into the apartment and made himself at home on the couch, opening up the little white boxes of delectable smelling food.

Or, at least he was when Sonny left the room to get plates. When she came back to the living room, Chad was smiling up at her in a sickeningly sweet way, his arms folded over his chest and his feet stretched under the coffee table.

"Hey, Sonny. Guess what?"

"What?" Sonny asked warily as she set the plates down on her closed Jane Austen novel.

"You pierce my soul."

"Excuse me?"

Where had she heard that line before?

"I'm half agony and half hope-"

Sonny gasped loudly and maybe a bit overdramatically, pointing an accusatory finger at the blonde teen before her. "You read my book!"

Chad grinned. "Of course I read your book. You just left it sitting there. I saw the phrase 'half agony, half hope' and I was intrigued. What kind of sappy ass crap is that?"

"Jane Austen," Sonny snapped. "She was a literary genius." She sat primly down on the couch next to Chad, picked up one of the spoons she'd brought out with the plates and began scooping food onto her plate, using the remote to turn on the television when she was done.

"Are you mad at me?" Chad asked over the laugh track on _Two and a Half Men_. "C'mon, Sonny. I was just joking around."

"You completely butchered one of my favorite scenes from that book. That letter was the best thing I've ever read. You ruined it," Sonny replied, stuffing some chicken into her mouth. "Now every time I read that part of the book, I'll think of you."

Chad rolled his eyes, dunking his egg roll in one of the little plastic bowls of sauce. "You'll get over it, Sonny. You're not like Tawni. You don't hold grudges."

Sonny merely looked at him for a few moments before turning back to her food and the television.

After a while, the evening returned to normal. Conversation eventually found its way back into the apartment, and the acting duo spent the evening laughing and comparing favorite comedians, ice cream flavors, books, movies, and even times of day. Chad was surprised when he looked at his watch to find that it was almost twelve-thirty. He hated to leave, but he had an early day of shooting tomorrow.

One question was still nagging at his mind, though.

"Why do girls like Jane Austen books so much?" he found himself asking Sonny as they lingered in her open doorway. "Seems like a lot of foofy language for something so…simple."

Sonny shrugged, a soft smile sweeping over her lips. "I think it's mostly the heroes she writes for her heroines. Every girl wants a Jane Austen man. You know, like a Wentworth or a Mr. Darcy. Someone completely devoted to them."

"From what I've heard, Austen's heroes are completely perfect," Chad argued.

"So?"

"I hate to burst your bubble, Sonny, but _no_ guy is perfect."

She laughed quietly but fondly. "I know."

"Then why hold out for that?"

"Who says I'm holding out?"

Chad paused for a moment just to look at her and completely lost his train of thought, instead concentrating on the casual messiness of her ponytail and the soft sparkle in her eyes, the perfect curve of her red-painted lips. It took him a moment to realize that he was leaning in and then another moment to realize that he was kissing her.

This was nothing like that frenzied, frantic first kiss in the woods behind Lucy's house. It was a simple, first date kind of kiss. The kind that should have come first but sometimes had the inevitable destiny of coming second.

She was kissing him back, too, one of her hands twining with his free one (the other having rested on her cheek) as the opposite rested on his chest. He was hideously reluctant to pull away, but he forced himself to anyway, backing out into the hallway a bit more as he stepped back.

Sonny blinked at him for a few moments, a glazed look in her eyes (a look he was sure swam in his own eyes), before she smiled at him and stepped back into her apartment, placing her hand on the door.

"Good night, Chad."

"Night, Munroe," he replied quietly before the door shut and he was left to exit the apartment building on a weird sort of Cloud Nine that he'd never experienced before.

* * *

**The 'Mackenzie Stalls' Skit**

**Mackenzie Stalls: **obviously a direct parody of _Mackenzie Falls_; also, a reference to the way Nico's Mackenzie always stalls and the name of Mackenzie's family business (Chad's Mackenzie has the water business, let's say that Nico's has, like, a stall making business or something).

**Rainier: **assuming that Portlyn's name is a take on Portland, I found a list of Oregon cities and picked Rainier at random. Sonny portrays Rainier, a parody of Portlyn who would never lash out at Mackenzie like that.

**DeShawn: **parody of Devon, Mackenzie's evil half-brother on _Mackenzie Falls_. He is portrayed by Grady.

**Priscilla: **parody of Penelope, one of the characters on the Mack Falls website. She is portrayed by Tawni.

**Crying girl: **ever noticed how somebody always has to burst into tears on Chad's show? I guess you could say that the crying girl is like a parody of that Chloe girl on the Mack Falls site, but I just thought it'd be funny if someone ran through the scene bawling and Zora needed a role. That's how she wound up running around pretending to cry.

* * *

**You pierce my soul…**

This is **a selection from Jane Austen's novel **_**Persuasion**_, which, as you should know by now, this story is based off of. This is **definite foreshadowing. Obvious, but definite. **Plus, I really love that piece of Wentworth's letter. If I were Anne, I'd jump his bones just for those first two sentences. But I'm not Anne and Wentworth's not real, so there will be no jumping of his bones.

* * *

**Speaking of bones…**

I'm too in love with that show! _Bones_ is fantastic. If you don't watch it, you should! If you're old enough to handle all the innuendo. Which you should be if you're reading T-rated stories. **I noticed that Booth and Brennan are always eating takeout. I don't know if it's Chinese or Thai **(I've heard it both ways), so **I chose Chinese and introduced that characteristic to Sonny and Chad's weird relationshippy friendship.**

* * *

So, **I was rather amused by the whole 'Mackenzie Stalls' idea, and I thought it was pretty funny. The thing is, I'm not so hot with parody, and that was only my second attempt.** My first got me an A-minus in AP Lit last year, but that was mostly luck. **I would adore it if you guys could tell me how I did.**

Oh and…

Yay! Another Channy kiss! -celebrates-

Do you guys love me? I would've done it last chapter, but it didn't feel right. **A kiss has to feel right, know what I mean? **It just…wasn't the right timing.

**The tickle fight thing made me squee as I was writing it. I personally thought it was just too cute. **Chad's so obviously flirting with Sonny now. You guys should love me bunches and bunches. I loved the fact that Nico walked in, not gonna lie. It was originally Grady, but Nico's reaction was so much better. Plus, Nico's a lot more fun to write. He's always seemed like one of the more realistic characters on _SWAC_ in my opinion.

**Hopefully, that love you guys have for me writing another kiss will transfer into lots of reviews that flood my inbox nonstop and make me write you more squee-worthy scenes of Chad/Sonny-ness. -hint, hint-**

I will update ASAP! I'm really busy now. I've got homework, dance team tryouts, and classes, but I _will_ update. I PROMISE!

Love,

EmbracingRain


	11. Month Ten: One More Time

**A/N: I am **_**so**_** sorry for the delay, you guys! While my professors aren't piling on the homework, I've still got a fair amount of it and I've been super busy. **Not only do I drive up to college every day, but I also have chores and commitments to my friends. I'm also trying out for our dance team, so I've got a couple clinics to go to and then the actual tryouts. Plus, I've been working on a TV show for a while now and I recently been motivated to write more of it, not to mention my book. Not to mention the fact that my sleep schedule is totally screwed up thanks to my wacky class times. I hate to say it, but this story kind of fell to a back burner for a little bit, but the storyline of **this chapter has been simmering in the back of my mind for a few weeks now. Hopefully you'll like it and will forgive me for the delay!**

* * *

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything except for Andrew, Chelsea, Eavan, and Tristan. Plus the occasional random wedding guest. And the girl with the purple hair. I own her, too.

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Ten

One More Time

* * *

**September 1st**

**10:39 a.m.**

**Chad's Voicemail**

_You have…one unheard message._

_First unheard message._

"Hey, Chad. It's me. Sonny, I mean. I'm Sonny. But…you probably knew that. Um…anyways. Call me back or something, okay? I need you to be my fake date one more time and- Oh, hey, Zora."

(Muffled talking.)

"No, I haven't seen your lizard. Just make sure Nico and Grady don't find out you lost him. A lizard's just basically a snake with legs."

(Muffled talking.)

"I _know_ there's major differences between a snake and a lizard, Zora. I'm not stupid. Do you mind if I have some privacy? I'm kinda on the phone here…"

(Muffled talking.)

"No, it's not _Chad!_"

(Muffled talking.)

"You don't know what you're talking about, Zora."

(The sound of a door shutting. A loud sigh.)

"Sorry. Um. Yeah. Just call me back, okay, Chad? Please?"

* * *

**September 1st**

**10:44 a.m.**

_**So Random!**_** Set**

**Sonny and Tawni's Dressing Room**

Sonny sighed in contentment and snuggled into the bright orange couch cushions, tugging her old, well-loved quilt up to her chin. She was just drifting off to sleep, lingering in that peaceful half-consciousness that was the limbo before dreams took over, when the door to her dressing room banged open. Sonny groaned and squeezed her eyes shut tighter.

"Just because I left a message on your phone saying that I needed your help with another fake date doesn't mean you should just barge into my dressing room, Chad," she declared testily.

"It sounded urgent!" Chad countered and Sonny heard him shut the door. "I figured I should- Oh, dear God. What is this…_thing_?"

Sonny cracked an eye open and sat up on the couch, running a hand through her hair. Chad was prodding at the fluffy, frilly, puffy, yellow dress draped over the back of the couch with a disgusted look on his face.

"That would be the reason I called you," she replied, her eyes somehow finding their way to the soap star's mouth. Luckily, he didn't notice and Sonny was free to reminisce for a few brief seconds about the last time he'd kissed her.

"Don't tell me I have to _wear_ that thing," Chad said, taking a step away from the couch and eyeing the bright yellow dress warily.

Sonny rolled her eyes and shoved her quilt aside before standing up. "Don't be stupid, Chad. I'll be the one wearing the dress."

"That's a _dress_?" the blonde actor said incredulously. "Damn, Munroe, who wants to publicly humiliate you so bad that they'd make you wear that?"

"It's my bridesmaid's dress," Sonny said tersely. "My brother and Chelsea are getting married this weekend." She picked the dress up off the back of the couch and hung it up on a hook in her changing stall.

"I thought they weren't getting married until Chelsea had the baby," Chad replied, looking confused.

"She had the baby in the middle of last month," Sonny said, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms over her chest. "Don't tell me that you don't remember."

"Fine," Chad said, shrugging and plopping onto the orange couch in his best attempt at a devil may care way. "I won't tell you that I don't remember."

"How can you not remember?" Sonny demanded, raising one questioning eyebrow at her sometimes fake boyfriend. "You barged in here when I was on the phone with my brother and heard every single detail about my nephew as a result. And then there was what happened after… You know, just as a side note, you really need to learn how to knock."

"I don't remember that specific moment," Chad said, cocking one of his own eyebrows in a challenging manner. "Actually," he continued, a smug smile crossing his handsome face (a smile that unnerved Sonny and made her the slightest bit angry because she could almost feel what he said next deep in her bones before he said it), "I remember the conversation, I just don't remember what happened _after_. Care to refresh my memory?" He crossed his right ankle over his left knee and propped his elbows on the back of the couch.

Sonny scowled at him, wrenched open her door, and moved to step out. She was barely two steps from the door when Chad suddenly pulled her back into the room and shut the door, an apologetic look replacing his pompous smile.

"Sorry," he said quietly. "That was…uncalled for."

The brunette shrugged his hand off her arm. "You think?" she bit out. "Just because there was a little bit of kissing doesn't mean you need to shove it in my face, alright?"

_A little bit of kissing? It was more than that, hon, _some ridiculous voice in the back of her mind jeered. _You were all over that boy like sheets on a bed or paint on a wall._

"Besides," Sonny continued loudly, trying to drown out the voice in her head, her cheeks a dark shade of pink, "if I'm remembering correctly, _you_ were the one who started it."

"Well, isn't that mature," Chad said snidely, still standing ridiculously close to her. So close, in fact, that his nose was millimeters from her own and she was pressed up against the door. "Pinning the blame on someone else. Way to regress to kindergarten, Munroe."

"Well, at least they're able to define my maturity level," Sonny said hotly, stepping closer despite herself. She tried to ignore the way the tips of their noses were touching was making her spine tingle and the palms of her hands sweat slightly. "You're so immature that they-"

The Wisconsinite found herself cut off when the blonde drama king abruptly kissed her, effectively cutting off her words. She tried to fight it, she really did, but her eyelids fluttered closed and her hands found their way to his chest. Chad Dylan Cooper was like the _god_ of kissing. He made her legs turn to jelly and her heart swoop in her chest before it started to hammer unevenly against her ribcage.

"Shut up, Munroe," Chad murmured against her mouth in between kisses.

"_You_ shut up," Sonny retorted quietly, seizing him by the lapels of his _Mackezie Falls_ blazer and subsequently melding their bodies together in a way that she'd been longing for since their last stolen (albeit accidental) moment here in her dressing room.

It wasn't until she felt one of his hands (the one that wasn't ruining her perfectly styled hair) slip from its position on her hip to a newer one on her bottom that Sonny realized Chad had actually managed to progress from _kissing _her to _Frenching_ her. And from there, it took her a few more minutes (minutes where his mouth left hers and he began kissing his way down her jawbone) to remember that she was _pissed_ at him.

"I'm mad at you," Sonny said breathlessly, hating herself for the way she sank so helplessly into his slight frame and how her head lolled against the door.

"I know."

"I'm _pissed_."

"I realize that. But you know what, Sonny?" He kissed her on the corner of her mouth. "You're ruining the moment. Can't you just…" Another kiss, this one on her tingling lips. "Just forget it for a few minutes and…" Kiss. "And kiss me?"

"No-o, I want to be _mad_," she whined, kissing him deeply despite herself.

"…mad later," Chad replied dismissively before claiming her mouth again.

Sonny allowed herself a few more indulgent minutes of kissing her frenemy-slash-sometimes fake boyfriend-slash-the guy she was possibly falling for before she reluctantly pulled away, a movement Chad apparently took as an invitation to go to work on her neck.

How had they gotten here? How had they gotten from barely friends to something akin to friends with benefits? Ever since she'd kissed him in the woods behind Lucy's house, she'd been aching for his presence, his hugs, his kisses… Even their arguments made her like him…want him…

Arguments.

She was mad.

At _him_.

She was mad at him!

"Chad," the brunette said warningly, "Tawni could walk in here at any given moment."

His only response was a nip to the delicate skin of her neck that made her moan.

"The only reason I called you was to ask if you'd be my fake date to my brother's wedding, not so you could give me a hickey."

Chad's lips left her throat and he raised his head to look at her, ocean blue eyes meeting velvety brown. He arched one eyebrow, his thumb brushing smoothly against her hip. When had he managed to get his hand under her shirt? It wasn't like he was unabashedly groping her, but still… It was like she accidentally let him French her _one time_ and he suddenly thought it was okay to-

Sonny gave herself a mental shake. Now was not the time to lose her train of thought!

"You expect me to go to a wedding with you when you're dressed as Little Bo Peep?" Chad asked, clearly amused.

"Fine," Sonny said, waving her hand through the air dismissively. "If you don't want to do it, I guess I could always ask Skyler or whatever his name is." She saw something like hurt flash in Chad's eyes and instantly regretted her words. Biting her swollen, still-tingling bottom lip ashamedly, Sonny hoped he could read the apology in her eyes; she really didn't want to apologize for clearly insinuating that she wanted to make him jealous. It was an awkward road their weird relationship shouldn't have to go down.

"I didn't say I wouldn't go," Chad said, pulling away from her. Sonny was disappointed when the warmth of his hand left her hip and her shirt fell back into place.

"That's not the impression that I got," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. God, she hated herself for deliberately pushing him away when she was vulnerable.

"I'm going, Munroe," he said definitively, loudly.

Sonny almost smiled, but the way her heart started to gallop once more like he was kissing her again put a stop to the motion. It made her nervous, all this heart racing. She was falling for him too hard.

"I'm glad," Sonny said quietly instead.

Chad half-smiled at her. "You don't _sound_ happy."

"I said that I'm glad, Chad. Glad and happy? Yeah, two completely different things."

"Fine," he said, shrugging and beginning to play with a lock of her hair. "You don't sound _glad_," this part was said teasingly, something that made Sonny crack the barest of smiles.

"'I'm sure _I_ wouldn't sound too happy either if _you_ had me pushed up against the door."

Chad rolled his eyes and Sonny laughed softly, slipping away from him reluctantly.

"Hey, Tawni," she said to the blonde girl, subtly attempting to fix her hair, an action that didn't go unnoticed by Tawni at all.

"Oh, _gross_," Tawni exclaimed, making a face as she sat down at her vanity and began tugging a brush through her hair. "I interrupted something, didn't I? Can't you guys learn to control yourselves?"

"There's nothing to _control_," Sonny said, fighting back a vicious blush that was threatening to invade her cheeks. "When does the next sketch start?"

"A few minutes. Do you want to walk down to the stage together?" Tawni asked, turning around in her chair and putting down her brush. "Or would you rather get in a few extra minutes with your boyfriend?"

Sonny scowled at her castmate. "Chad's not my boyfriend, Tawni, you know that."

Tawni rolled her eyes and pulled a nail file seemingly from nowhere. "Fake boyfriend, _whatever_. Jeez, you guys are so touchy when it comes to your stupid relationship."

Chad chortled slightly, stepping around Sonny and making his way over to Tawni's side of the dressing room where he placed one hand on the doorknob. "We're not in a relationship, Blondie. I think we're allowed to be upset when people accuse us of being something we're not." He formed his fingers into guns and pointed them at Sonny, making a clicking noise in the back of his throat. "Catch ya later, Munroe." With that, he was gone.

Sonny turned back to Tawni, a glare on her face. "Can't you leave well enough alone?"

"Well enough?" Tawni snorted. "I'm just trying to help! You and Chad are so obsessed with denying that you're in any kind of relationship that you've both started to ignore one basic but very important fact: you _like_ each other!"

Sonny scoffed and snagged her script up from the table as she brushed past Tawni on her way out the door, saying, "Now you're just making things up," as she went.

"No, I'm really not," the blonde insisted as the pair walked briskly down the hallway toward the stage. "Look, I'm not you or Chad; I've got an outside view on the whole situation. I see things that you two can't. Trust me, okay?"

Sonny shook her head and walked a little faster, pulling ahead of Tawni. "I'm not listening to this, Tawni."

* * *

**September 10th**

**4:45 p.m.**

**Wisconsin**

**Hotel Ballroom**

Chad fixed his hair in the back of his spoon before raising his eyes to the set of French doors that had just opened up. The DJ was announcing Andrew and his girlfriend (now wife, Chad corrected himself), but the blonde only had eyes for the small grouping of girls preceding the happy couple. The first was a haughty-looking blonde of about eighteen or nineteen years old. There was a devious smile on her overly made up face, but there was an air surrounding her that suggested she was disgusted by everyone and everything around her. She was wearing a blue dress that did absolutely nothing for her, but she wore it like she thought she was Marilyn Monroe. Sonny and a thin girl with shockingly purple hair were walking behind her, Sonny cradling a small blanketed bundle in her bare arms. Chad assumed that Sonny was carrying her nephew from the way both girls were cooing over the blanket.

The yellow mess of a dress Chad had seen in Sonny's dressing room back in California actually didn't look all that bad on her. He supposed it was the kind of dress that looked like a total disaster on the hanger but actually made sense when put on a body.

Sonny must have sensed his eyes lingering over her, because she suddenly looked up and met his gaze with a large smile and a wink. Chad chuckled softly and smiled back. He never would've thought that he'd wind up as Sonny's date to her older brother's wedding.

There was a bit of a commotion when the eldest Munroe and his new wife entered the room, but Chad suddenly found that a delicate flowery smell was wafting under his nose, and he looked around to see that Sonny had taken her place next to him, softly brushing a finger over her nephew's round face.

"Who'sa goo' boyyy?" she cooed with a dopey smile on her face. "Who'sa goo' Trissy?"

Chad snorted and Sonny looked around at him with a smirk on her lips.

"What?" she asked.

"What did you just call that kid?" Chad replied.

Sonny blushed and shifted the baby in her arms. "It's baby talk, Chad. Everyone does it. His name is Tristan."

Chad looked over at the rosy-cheeked baby who peered back at him with calm, clear, blue eyes and then reached up with one pudgy hand to bop the blonde actor on his nose.

"Hey!" Chad exclaimed, pulling his head away.

Sonny giggled. "Yeah, he doesn't like it very much when people do that."

"Then the least you could've done was warn me," Chad said, feigning hurt and placing a hand over his nose delicately. "He could've really hurt me!"

"He's a _baby_, Cooper."

"Well, well, well," a distinctly feminine voice said, interrupting the actors' banter. "Looks like little Sonny managed to scrounge up some sort of Hollywood scum to bring to her _big bwudder's_ wedding."

Sonny rolled her eyes and looked up at the girl who had so rudely interrupted them. "Chad," she addressed the blonde on her right, "this is Chelsea's sister Eavan. Eavan, this is Chad."

Chad looked up at the bleach blonde in the ugly blue dress who was towering over them. She wore too much make up, he noticed. "Hi," he said quietly. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to like this girl much. She had the typical Hollywood skank air around her; the type of air that Chad had been less attracted to ever since Sonny had joked her way into his life with a fat suit and some fro-yo.

"Oh. My. _Gawd._ You brought Chad Dylan Cooper?" Eavan shot at Sonny who raised one finely-shaped yet unenthused eyebrow.

"Surprised?" Sonny responded at rapid-fire speed.

"There's no _way_ Chad Dylan _Cooper_ is your boyfriend."

"I didn't say he-"

"I am," Chad declared loudly before he even knew what he was saying. He almost slapped his hand over his mouth but he refrained. Instead he told himself that the only reason he'd said that he was Sonny's boyfriend was because of the way Sonny was blushing and because of the impression Eavan was giving off. Sonny whipped her head around to look at him, and he could have sworn he heard it crack.

"_Chad._"

Chad shrugged, casually slinging an arm around his favorite Wisconsinite's thin shoulders. "C'mon, Sonny," he said in his best 'Persuasive Mackenzie' voice. "Are you really going to tell your sister-in-law that we're not dating when we _are_? Jeez, Munroe. I thought I meant something to you." He punctuated his sentence with a wink, but from the way Sonny's mouth turned down into a frown and the way her face turned even redder, he guessed she wasn't so much amused as she was angry.

Eavan snorted, bringing the pair's attention back to her; Chad had a feeling she did it on purpose. She definitely seemed like the kind of girl who constantly felt as though she was attention-deprived.

"I don't believe you."

Chad's eyebrows shot up his forehead. "You don't believe us? I'm Chad Dylan Cooper. That should be enough."

"Prove it then," Eavan said snidely, crossing her arms over her chest and distracting from some of the ugliness of the dress. "Kiss."

"What are you? _Five?_" Chad demanded at the same time Sonny said, "I'm holding a _baby_."

Both teen stars looked at each other and then erupted into raucous laughter. The blue swathed girl in front of them gaped in confusion.

"What's so funny?!"

"We're not big on…public displays of affection," Sonny gasped through her giggles. "We're more of a…private couple."

"Bullshit."

Sonny scowled. "Um…_hello_, airhead. _Baby_."

Tristan started to cry and both Sonny and Chad looked down at him, worry creasing their foreheads. His big blue eyes were squinted shut and his wails pierced the room as his tiny fists waved through the air. A pungent odor filled the air, making Chad's eyes water slightly.

"Oh, great," Chad heard Sonny mutter. "I don't know where my mom is."

Chad tore his eyes from the squalling infant and looked up at Sonny. "What do you need?" He almost started laughing again. Sonny plus a baby made him _care_. It was almost too clichéd to be true.

"My mom elected to be on diaper duty today-"

Chad heard Eavan quietly intone, "Oh, _gross_." She quickly vanished from his peripheral vision.

"-and I have no idea where she is. I don't have anything to-"

"Sonny?"

The brunette comedienne's brown eyes filled with relief, and Chad followed her gaze to see that Connie Munroe had quickly filled Eavan's vacated position on the opposite side of the table. Her mother of the groom look had less of an impact by the presence of a bulky, sky blue diaper bag that was slung over her shoulder. She held out her arms expectantly and Sonny obediently stood up and passed her nephew over to his grandmother cautiously.

"I was just about to send Chad to look for you," Sonny said.

Connie looked around her daughter and clumsily waved to Chad who returned the gesture with a smile.

"Hi, Mrs. Munroe."

"Hi, Chad." She turned back to Sonny. "Where did Eavan go? I saw her over here just a second before Tristan started crying…"

"I said the word 'diaper,'" Sonny told her with a roll of her eyes. "She bolted. You know Eavan."

Connie sighed and nodded. "You're right. Make sure you talk to some of the family, sweetie."

"I will."

"Bye, Chad."

"Bye."

As her mother walked away, Sonny turned back to Chad with a questioning look on her face. Chad raised a solitary eyebrow in response.

"So…do I really look like Little Bo Peep?"

Chad cracked a smiled. "Only as long as I get to be the sheep you lost."

Sonny giggled and leaned against the linen-covered table. "You know you don't have to pretend, Chad."

Who said he was pretending?

"What do you mean?"

"It's just…" She began to make an accordion out of the fabric of her bright yellow dress, her fingers deftly pleating the material. "You don't have to be so…over the top. You don't actually have to act like my boyfriend."

"That Eavan's the entire reason I'm here, isn't she?" Chad questioned her softly.

Sonny nodded, focusing even harder on her fingers' actions. "Eavan and I don't like each other. She really looks down on me and she doesn't believe that I can…well, let's just say she doesn't think I'm pretty enough for guys."

"She's stupid," Chad said bluntly. "And probably jealous. Ignore her, okay? You've got all of your friends to prove her wrong."

"Friends aren't guys," Sonny said, her eyes flickering back up to his.

"You've got guys, Munroe."

A tall, black haired man swaggered past, a glass of scotch clutched in each of his hands.

"You don't need to lie to make me feel better, Chad."

"I'm not lying. I'm telling the truth, okay? I know of a few guys who think you're hot and one specific one who really, _really_ likes you. In fact, he'd probably still like you even if he saw you in that dress."

Sonny laughed slightly and wrinkled her nose. "You really know how to charm a girl, Cooper. Look, I have to go talk to my grandma for a little bit. Think you'll be okay by yourself?"

Chad shrugged noncommittally and made himself a bit more comfortable in his chair. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

As Sonny walked away, Chad kept his eyes on her, a frown pushing his eyebrows together. How many hints did he have to drop until she realized that the guy who liked her was _him?_

* * *

**September 12th**

**3:01 p.m.**

**Sonny Munroe's Apartment**

Sonny smiled privately as she accepted the small package from the deliveryman and then shut her apartment door. Her mom was still in Wisconsin helping out with Tristan for a while, so there was nobody pestering her about what was in the tiny box; it was kind of nice.

She slowly tore the brown packaging paper off of the cardboard (it was covered in Chad's perfect, all-caps printing; the ink was bright blue like his eyes) and then opened the box to reveal a smaller one of black velvet. Upon opening the velvet box, she found a small note which she opened before even glancing at the new charm.

_Bo Peep-_

_Don't worry. It's not Tiffany's this time, I swear. I even saved the receipt if you want proof._

_- Your Lost Sheep_

Chuckling, Sonny set the note aside and picked the velvet box back up. Nestled in the off-white satin interior was a delicately carved rose (silver, of course). Each and every detail of the silver flower was crafted so realistically that Sonny briefly had a hard time believing it was just a charm. Chad really did spoil her. As she examined the little piece, her smile and the look in her eyes turned wistful. Was it too much to hope that maybe he wasn't just acting?

* * *

Oh, gosh. You guys have no idea how jealous I was of Sonny in the very first couple sentences of this chapter! Right now, I want nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep forever! I'm so tired. Between papers, classes, dance team clinics, and trying to figure out a good sleep schedule (not to mention the nightmare that my eating habits have turned into now that I'm snacking every time I study. Hello, freshman fifteen!) I am completely and totally _bushed_. You'd think dancing for two hours a night for three days this week wouldn't be that bad, but you should _see_ the routine we have to try out with. It's a nightmare. **I can hardly keep my eyes open so…be thankful I got this up, haha. I know it's not the best, but hopefully you can forgive me.**

**For those of you who are sad about the ending of this story, don't worry! I am too. We've still got three more chapters to go**, though, and then I'll be updating _Twelve Months of Outtakes_ and **I'm working on a surprise **for you guys! I'm not going to say what it is just now, but I'll let you know soon.

I had a lot of fun writing Eavan's character. I based her off of my brother's girlfriend's sister. She's a snot and I really don't like her. If I'd gone to school with her, I probably would've hated her guts.

I named the baby Tristan because that's what I really want my brother and his girlfriend to name my nephew; that or Brad. Unfortunately, my brother's girlfriend has one name picked out and she's got my brother wrapped around her finger. I like the name she picked out, but not for _my_ nephew.

By the way, I was listening to Colbie Caillat's "Falling For You" while I was writing this chapter. It's a good song, so if you haven't heard it you should go on YouTube and look it ASAP. Also, "Smile" by Uncle Kracker and…

You know what? I'll just make you a playlist of what I was listening to while writing this chapter.

1. "Falling For You" by Colbie Caillat  
2. "Smile" by Uncle Kracker  
3. "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon  
4. "Gotta Be Somebody" by Nickelback  
5. "Over And Over" by Three Days Grace  
6. "Stuck On You" by Hellogoodbye  
7. "She Is Love" by Parachute  
8. "Burning Love" by Elvis Presley  
9. "Rag Doll" by Aerosmith  
10. "All The Small Things" by blink-182

**A MEGA THANKS GOES OUT TO **_**MAY LILY**_** FOR NAGGING AT ME TO HURRY UP AND UPDATE. THIS CHAPTER IS FOR YOU, MAY!**

**By the way, guess what day it officially is? MY BIRTHDAY! Yay! I'm so excited. You can guess how old I am if you want, but you know what would be fantastic? If you guys somehow hit close to two-hundred reviews! That would be an _awesome_ birthday present.**


	12. Month Eleven: Halloween at the Falls

A/N: Hey, guys! I'm pretty much still wrecked, but I'm posting this in hopes that you still love me. I've been writing whenever I could grab a chance and all my friends are wondering why I have my nose stuck in my notebook twenty-four seven. Anyway, I hope you like it! I was laughing during the first two parts, but that's just me. I could just be horribly sleep deprived.

* * *

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything except for Cheesy Swirls and Hathorne Hospital.

* * *

Twelve Months

_A Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Eleven

Halloween at the Falls

* * *

**October 25th**

**2:17 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random! **_**Set**

**Hallway**

Chad was sauntering down the hallway (no really, he was sauntering. It was just something he did. Especially when he was on his way to see Sonny). He had his hands shoved in the pockets of his khakis and a small, satisfied smile on his face. There was a bounce in his step and a certain arrogance about the way he was holding his head in the air. Anyone who was walking past him at that moment in time would have thought he'd landed another "small but crucial" role in a movie, but that wasn't the case at all.

No, the cast of _Mackenzie Falls_ was having a Halloween party.

_That_ was why Chad was sauntering.

The sauntering stopped, however, when he came across Nico and Grady who were having some sort of girlish slapping fight in the middle of the hallway, effectively blocking his way into Sonny's dressing room. Chad raised an eyebrow. Hadn't he just seen Nico with Portlyn outside the commissary? (Sonny had been right after all; Nico and Portlyn _were_ friends.)

"Mine's funnier!"

"No, man! _Mine's_ funnier! Quit slappin' at me!" Nico batted Grady's hands away to punctuate his sentence.

"You started it!" Grady shot back, slapping more furtively at Nico's hands.

"I don't care who started it," Chad interjected and both Randoms turned to stare at him, embarrassment coloring their faces. "The only thing I care about is that you're blocking my way," he continued, gesturing to Sonny's door.

"Sonny's not in there," Nico said to the _Mackenzie Falls_ star; Grady took the opportunity to make his escape. "Her mom took her to lunch about an hour ago."

Chad frowned. "Well, when is she going to be back?"

"No idea, man," Nico said, shrugging.

"Alright…well, if you see her-"

"Tell her you're lookin' for her," Nico completed with a knowing smirk. "Yeah, I gotcha. But you'll probably find her before I do. It's like the two of ya got some sort of GPS in yo brains. Ya always find each other." As he started to walk away in the direction that Grady had made his exit in, Chad stared dumbly after him for a few moments.

It was kind of like Nico had some sort of intuition kind of thing that let him know more than he was supposed to. Maybe he was omniscient or something. He seemed to know a lot for somebody who usually seemed so out of the loop. Especially about Sonny. Chad couldn't believe he was about to open his mouth and ask, but…

"Hey, Nico," Chad called after the other teen.

Nico turned back around, confusion sprinting across his face. "What?"

"You know a lot about Sonny, right?"

Nico shrugged indifferently. "Yeah, I know some stuff about her. Let me guess: you want me to fill you in on some things."

Well, at least the words hadn't actually come out of _Chad's_ mouth. He nodded.

"Meet me in the prop house around four," the comedian said quietly, adjusting the hat on his head as he spoke. "We'll have a man-to-Chad chat."

"I've got my masseuse coming at four," Chad immediately responded, hooking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of _Mackenzie Falls_.

"Fine by me," Nico said. "I don't really care. You asked, I got some free time that I can do better things with."

"Can't we talk some other time?"

"No can do. I finish up a rehearsal at three-fifty, then Sonny and the others are in rehearsal from four to four-thirty. After that, we all rehearse the final sketch. Prop house at four or nothing." With that said, Nico turned on his heel and disappeared around the corner.

Chad groaned, pulling his cell phone from the pocket of his _Mackenzie Falls_ blazer. Today was one of those days where he _really _needed his massage (Portlyn was being supremely stupid today; so stupid that it was like she was trying to set a record) , and now he had to cancel.

The things he did for Sonny Munroe…

…It was kind of ridiculous.

* * *

**October 25th**

**3:58 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random!**_** Set**

**Prop Room**

Chad was two minutes early, but Nico had still somehow managed to beat him to the _So Random! _prop house and was currently sitting on the couch, Xbox controller in hand. Gunshots were exploding from the television's speakers and Nico was snarling ferociously at whatever game he was playing. Skirting a statue of E.T. and sidestepping a skateboard, Chad reluctantly sat down on the couch next to his kind of enemy (after removing a deflated whoopee cushion, some kind of rubber spider, a Batman comic book, a questionable tub of cream cheese spread, and what looked like rubber vomit, of course. What kind of a place _was_ the Randoms' prop house?!).

"What game is this?" Chad asked conversationally after Nico didn't say anything for a few exceedingly awkward minutes.

Nico muttered something unintelligible and passed the blonde teen a controller. "We're trying to kill that guy," he said, pointing to the screen of the TV. There was some sort of blobby figure sprinting toward a blood-red horizon.

Chad held the controller blankly for a moment before joining in on the shoot-'em-up game with vigor. The game seemed familiar enough and he was usually a whiz when it came to video games, so hopefully he wouldn't have _too_ hard of a time catching on. After all, any games that Randoms played couldn't possibly be _that_ difficult.

It was as Chad was switching guns on top of a crumbling building a good ten minutes later that Nico finally brought up the entire reason he'd agreed to talk to Chad in the first place.

"You like Sonny."

Chad grimaced and navigated his character over to the edge of the roof then switched his visuals to the darkened street below. He scanned over the building across the street before saying, "That obvious, huh?"

Nico shrugged, his own character pulling a hand grenade from seemingly nowhere and leaning over the edge of the building Chad's character was currently attempting to be a sniper on. "I see things," Nico replied ambiguously. His character put away the grenade as Chad's caught sight of one of their target's guards and promptly blew his brains out. "Nice shot, man."

"Thanks," Chad said. "So what do I do about it?"

"What d'ya mean? You just killed the guy. I don't-"

"No, I mean about liking Sonny."

"Why you askin' me?" Nico asked as the two video game characters ran slowly down a flight of stairs and then out a door.

"You're around her practically all the time," Chad said. "You have to know things about her."

"Just 'cause I know things about her doesn't mean I'll tell you," Nico replied. "Sonny's my friend, y'know? I don't like spillin' her secrets. Besides, who says I even know anything about who she likes?"

"Oh, come _on_, brah," Chad wheedled. "I'm letting you hang out with Portlyn!"

Nico's fingers froze on his controller for a moment and he looked over at Chad with wide, taken aback eyes. "You know I've been hangin' out wit Portlyn?"

"So does Sonny," Chad told Nico, shrugging his shoulders as his character kicked a door in. "In fact, she was the one who told me."

Nico shook his head and let out a low whistle. "Are you two the only people who know?"

Chad nodded, continuing to mash down buttons on his controller. "As far as I know. Look, dude. I personally don't care who you hang out with, so if you wanna hang out with Portlyn, that's fine by me. Personally, I think she's the biggest hypocrite in the world right now, but that's just me. All I'm looking for is your opinion."

"My opinion?" Nico questioned, returning his attention to the video game before them. "My opinion is that Sonny likes you."

"Did she tell you that?"

"Opinion, man. Meanin' it's just conjecture."

"Conjecture," Chad repeated flatly. "Right."

"It's like you said," Nico continued as though Chad hadn't spoken. "I'm around Sonny girl all the time. Unfortunately along wit Sonny comes you because you're permanently attached at the hip. And yeah, I observe things. Sonny's about as obvious as my parents tryin' to lie to me and my little sister. And they can't lie to us. As for you, well…you're apparently about as blind as Tawni without her contacts."

"Right," Chad said, rolling his eyes and trying not to smile. Sonny liked him! "So if I asked her out what do you think she'd say? Conjecturally speaking."

"Couldn't tell ya even if I thought I knew," Nico said flippantly.

"Why not?"

"Sonny's a very complex person, Cooper. She's not the type of girl you usually run around with."

"Don't I know it," Chad muttered.

Nico chuckled. "Look, dependin' on the type of day she's havin', it could go either way."

"She agreed to go out with James Conroy after I made fun of her teapot costume," Chad argued, his character kicking another guard in the face.

"No, she agreed to go out wit him to spite Tawni," Nico corrected the blonde.

"_After_ I made fun of her teapot costume."

"Let it go, Cooper," Nico advised him wisely.

"What does Chad have to let go of now?" Sonny asked loudly as she entered the prop house, tossing her script to the table between the couch and the television set.

Chad fumbled with his Xbox controller as he turned to look at her, mouth ajar. Oh, God! What if she'd heard!? No, no, she couldn't have heard. If she'd heard, she wouldn't have asked.

"You should close your mouth," Sonny said to Chad, leaning over and placing a finger under his chin to close his mouth. "If you don't, you'll catch flies."

"Hey, Sonny girl. How was the sketch?"

"Good, actually," Sonny said, sitting down in between the two boys and wrinkling her nose when Nico shot and killed his original target (Chad was still staring at her in paranoia). "We finished a few minutes early because Tawni wasn't too busy flirting with the new intern for once. Which is a good thing in general because I specifically told her to stick to movie stars, hotel heirs, and princes. _Nobody_ wants a repeat of what happened with Hayden." She glared at Chad.

"What did I do?!" Chad asked defensively, tossing his game controller to the table.

"You kicked my door in! It took the super two months to replace it!"

Nico paused the game and stood up from the couch, awkwardly inching toward the double doors of the prop room. There was no _way_ he was sticking around for another of Sonny and Chad's stupid lovers' spats.

"You kissed another guy!" Chad shot back, leaping up from the couch and pointing an accusatory finger at the brunette.

"It was the kiss cam!" Sonny defended herself. She stood up, crossing her arms over her chest.

"It was on the cover of _Tween Weekly_!"

"It was your fault for giving me the tickets in the first place!" Sonny bellowed, storming past him and out the door.

Chad was left behind in the _So Random!_ prop house, staring after her, mouth ajar once more. He scratched the back of his head in confusion. Maybe today wasn't the best day…

* * *

**October 26th**

**12:24 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

**Commissary**

She was standing at the sandwich counter by herself in a black shirt-dress, orange heels, and yellow and white accessories. To tell the truth, she kind of looked like a piece of candy corn.

…A very yummy piece of candy corn that had just ordered…

Well, Chad couldn't read lips, but it looked like Sonny had either ordered the Chad Hero Sandwich or the Sloppy Jonas. He wasn't really sure which, but he was pulling for the Chad.

But Sonny Munroe's choice of sandwich was beside the point (except that if she ordered the Chad, then it _had_ to mean _something_). The point was that _this_ was the _opportune moment_ Johnny Depp spoke so much of in those pirate movies (movies that would be _so_ much better if they were graced with Chad Dylan Cooper's gorgeous- NO. Now was _not_ the time to get distracted!). Sonny was by herself, she looked happy, and there was nobody else in the commissary to laugh at him if he got turned down.

Well, nobody except for Harvey the sandwich guy (Chad had a feeling his name wasn't Harvey but was possibly along the lines of Hank or Harry or Howie, but he wasn't sure and he couldn't care less at this point).

So, Chad started to saunter over to her (he couldn't help it. Honestly!), but just as he went to tap her on the shoulder, the girl turned around and Chad realized that it _wasn't_ Sonny Munroe he was just about to ask to the _Mackenzie Falls_ Halloween party. Rather, it was some girl who looked so freakishly like Sonny Munroe that Chad thought, for a split second, that somebody was filming another _Chad Dylan Cooper Movie_.

"Can I _help_ you?" the Sonny look-a-like snapped, glowering at the blonde actor.

Chad's eyes fell to the foam box in her hands. "I see you ordered the Chad," he said weakly, bravely attempting a smile. "Good…choice."

The girl sneered and pushed past him. "Whatever, creep-o."

Chad groaned and slouched out of the commissary. He'd categorized a Sonny look-a-like as a yummy piece of candy corn! This was _so_ not his day.

* * *

**October 27th**

**2:22 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random! **_**Set**

**Hallway**

This was his moment.

He was absolutely _positive_ of that fact.

There was no way in hell that the brown-haired girl curled up on the couch in Sonny and Tawni's dressing room, reading what looked to be a book by Stephen King, and chowing down on a bag of Cheesy Swirls _wasn't_ Sonny Munroe. She was wearing the charm bracelet he'd given her after all.

Slipping silently into the room so as not to arouse her attention, Chad abruptly slammed the door to Tawni's side behind him. The effect was instantaneous: Sonny yelped loudly and threw her book into the air, leaping off the couch in a very comical manner. Chad burst into laughter. Cheesy Swirls rained down from the upturned bag as it tumbled to the floor.

"_Cha-ad!_" Sonny whined, bending over to pick up her fallen novel. "You _jerk_."

Still chortling, Chad flopped down onto the couch beside her, throwing an arm around her shoulders and looking sweetly into her terrified yet accusatory eyes. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely and her eyes softened the slightest bit. "You just looked so into the book that I couldn't resist. Is that _Pet Sematary_?"

Sonny nodded. "Yeah," she said ruefully. "And I was already really freaked out. You didn't need to add to it.

"Sorry," Chad offered up again.

"It's fine," Sonny said, slipping her arms around his torso and burying her face in his neck. Chad awkwardly wrapped his arms around her in response. "Just don't do it again, okay? That baby is really creepy."

A few moments passed in silence and Chad listened to the soft pattering of the rain against the large window at the back of the cheery dressing room. He hadn't realized that Sonny was this easily creeped out, otherwise he wouldn't have slammed the door like that. Actually…that probably wasn't true.

"Hey," Chad said softly after a few moments, "are you busy on Halloween?"

There was a muffled 'no' that vibrated through his collarbone where Sonny's lips rested.

"Do you want to go to the _Mackenzie Falls_ Halloween party with me?" The words flowed out of his mouth so much more easier than he had originally been expecting them to. They slipped gently, quietly, and confidently from his mouth, honestly surprising him. The moment hadn't been exactly ideal, but his time was running out. Halloween was four days away and if he put off the question any longer, then there was more of a chance Sonny would have plans.

Sonny pulled away from his embrace slightly, eyebrows knit together in confusion. "You want to take me to a party with all of your _Falls_ buddies? Are you sure about that, Chad?"

Chad shrugged. "There's really nobody else I want to go with," he said simply, hoping his embarrassment didn't color his voice.

"They'll get mad," Sonny told him reproachfully.

"Only Portlyn."

"She's the one who stole your status as the ringleader over there."

"Sonny, trust me, okay? Nobody's going to be mad if we hang out. Besides, where we're going, nobody will even care."

Sonny sighed and took a few gut-wrenching moments to ponder over Chad's question, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. "As long as I get to pick the costumes," she said finally.

Chad grinned at her. "You got it."

* * *

**October 29th**

**7:16 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**Mackenzie Falls**_** Set**

**Chad's Dressing Room**

Chad was just getting ready to leave for the day and was busy putting on his black leather jacket (and consequently wondering what had happened to his brown one after New Year's because he _still_ hadn't been able to find it) when somebody knocked on the door to his dressing room. Looking at the watch on his wrist in confusion, Chad crossed his room to the door, prepared to tell whoever was on the other side to bug off because he was done filming for the day. When he opened the door, however, it was to reveal a harried-looking Nico.

"Hey, man," Nico said, thrusting a brown paper bag into Chad's hands. "Sonny asked me to drop this off."

Chad peeked in the bag and frowned at the shapeless but colorful lump of clothing inside. "What _is_ it?" he asked, raising a slightly disgusted eyebrow as he looked back to the Random standing in his doorway.

"Lame superhero costume," Nico informed him. "Sonny also asked me to ask you if you could get her a _Mackenzie Falls_ uniform."

"Yeah, there's a whole bunch in the storage closet down the hall," Chad said, looking back at the bag in his hands in confusion. "What does she want it for? And why is she giving me…ugh…_this_ thing?"

"She said the two of ya are goin' to a Halloween party of some sort," Nico said, waving a careless hand through the air. "Look, I kinda need that uniform right now. I promised Sonny I'd have it to her by the time she finishes her last sketch and I'm runnin' low on time."

"Sure," Chad said, tossing the paper grocery bag to the microsuede couch in the middle of his dressing room. He beckoned for Nico to follow him out of the dressing room and down the hall to where the extra uniforms were kept. Sonny expected him to go to his cast's party as a _lame superhero_ while she went as a _Mackenzie Falls_ babe? That was something Chad highly doubted was going to happen.

Upon entering the large closet, Chad started plucking items of clothing from the racks and shelves, guesstimating Sonny's sizes as he went. A plaid miniskirt, a white dress shirt, a blue and purple argyle sweater, some knee-high socks, a striped tie, and a few accessories Chad knew he would normally see Sonny wearing all went into a fancy box he'd found by the rack of skirts. It was when he got to the shoes that he faltered. He didn't really pay attention to Sonny's feet. In fact, feet in general creeped him out.

"Do you know what size shoe Sonny wears?" he asked, turning to Nico who shrugged and made a face.

"Like I really care how big her feet are," the comedian said sarcastically.

Chad groaned inwardly and turned back to the racks of shoes. Taking one more guess, he snatched a pair of heels from one of the racks and added them to the box before closing the lid and passing the parcel to Nico who said a quick thank you and then sped away.

The blonde star of _Mackenzie Falls_ took one last look around the costume closet before shutting the door and beginning to make his way out of Condor Studios. If Sonny thought she was being cute or funny by giving him a lame costume, then she had another think coming.

* * *

**October 31st**

**11:21 p.m.**

**Hathorne Hospital**

**Parking Lot**

**Chad's Car**

Sonny shivered slightly as she gazed up at the creepy, old, decrepit insane asylum through the window of Chad's sleek, silver convertible. Sheet lightning was crackling behind the clouds and there was a steady downpour of rain. The spire of the front entrance reached up into the pitch black sky, disappearing into the night; dim lights shimmered dully only in a select few of the front windows. The rest of the place was lit only momentarily when lightning scorched the sky.

Despite her Wisconsin upbringing and the fact that she hadn't been in Hollywood all that long, Sonny knew the stories behind Hathorne Hospital. She knew about the little boy who had scratched off his face. She knew about the blue fog that rolled down the corridors in the middle of the night. She knew about the nurse who tried to end her attempt at suicide but wound up dying in a fire instead. And Sonny knew that this was _definitely_ not the place she wanted to be spending her Halloween at.

"You didn't tell me the party was _here_," she said accusatorily, momentarily forgetting the fact that she was mad at Chad for foregoing the lame superhero costume and deciding to dress up as _Mackenzie_ of all things. Her eyes sought out his in the pressing darkness of the interior of the car.

"Would you rather go home?" Chad asked, sounding slightly freaked out himself.

"No," Sonny said, doing her best to scoff at the idea. "…Why? Would _you_?"

Chad snorted. "No…"

He didn't sound so sure himself.

Sonny turned her gaze back to the creepy building just outside her window. "Maybe we should just get it over with," she sighed. Moments later, she felt Chad's hand slip into hers and squeeze reassuringly.

"We'll leave anytime you want," he promised. "We don't have to stay the entire night."

Before Sonny could even begin to protest that she was _fine_ with staying in the creepy old hospital, Chad was out of the car, opening a large, black umbrella, and then hurrying over to her door to help her out into the stormy night. The alarm beeped once when Chad locked the doors, seeming to signal the finality of their exit from the car. There was no going back from here.

As the pair approached the heavy front doors, they swung open as though to usher the building's guests into the bowels of the place in order to cut them off from the rest of the world. The entrance hall was paneled with darkly stained wood and the ancient black and white tiles made Sonny's borrowed _Mackenzie Falls_ heels clack loudly and cut through the relative silence. Sonny griped Chad's hand with extra strength as they followed a sign containing a single blood red arrow down a windowless corridor. It seemed as though parts of the old hospital were rotting away because there were holes in the walls, caution tape surrounding places where the floorboards were dipping in on themselves and splintering, and a couple of doors were hanging off their hinges.

Chad and Sonny found themselves facing two white doors, the kind found in emergency rooms or movies where people are being rushed through the hospital to deliver a baby or have emergency surgery. The windows were dingy and one of the two was cracked. An old, wooden plaque next to the doors read 'Lobotomies' and was splattered with something akin to dried blood. The further the pair of actors went, the harder it was for Sonny to trick herself into believing that this _wasn't_ a creepy, abandoned mental hospital.

The door with the cracked window swung open to reveal Portlyn. She was dressed as Catwoman and had a Diet Coke in her hand.

"Like, way to, like, dress up and stuff, Chad," she said, rolling her eyes after taking in Chad's 'costume.'

"I _did_ dress up, Portlyn," Chad retorted cockily. "I'm Mackenzie."

Portlyn's cold, calculating eyes drifted over to Sonny who shrunk into Chad's side ever so slightly.

"Why's _she_, like, here?"

Sonny glared sharply at the other brunette. Portlyn might have a few pounds on her, but Sonny was definitely scrappier. There was a chance that, if it came down to it (and Sonny sincerely hoped it didn't), she could beat the drama queen in a cat fight.

"She's my new love interest," Chad said protectively.

Apparently, this had a different meaning to Portlyn than it did Sonny because Portlyn merely walked away after rolling her eyes once more. "It's not, like, gonna be all my, like, fault and stuff if, like, people get mad, Chad," she called over her shoulder.

"Since when does Mackenzie have a new love interest?" Sonny asked Chad innocently as they entered the room.

The old medical tools still lined the walls and a gurney was resting in the corner. Atop the gurney sat a flat screen television and a DVD player; the opening scene to a movie had just started to play. The floor was covered in air mattresses, blankets, and people. Drinks and snacks were interspersed between the scalpels and toothy saws on the counters bolted to the walls. Nobody turned around to see who had entered the room, but a few people said their hellos to the star of their show. A Batman and a Superman were staring each other down from across the viewing space.

Chad blinked down at Sonny for a few moments, mouthing wordlessly and looking like a fish out of water before apparently getting over whatever it was she said and towing her toward the snacks. "It's something we're thinking about," he said moodily, grabbing up a few ghost-shaped cookies and a can of pop; Sonny followed his lead, wondering what she had done now.

Together, the pair found a bit of space by the wall and sat down on the air mattress provided (Sonny doing her best not to think about the fact that she was inches away from the floor of a lobotomy room). So far, the movie seemed harmless, but Sonny doubted that she would be watching a comedy solely based on the facts that:

1. She was spending Halloween with the cast of _Mackenzie Falls_; and

2. They were watching a movie in the lobotomy room of an old, decaying insane asylum.

No. The odds were not in her favor.

As the title _Project 17_ flashed across the screen, Sonny abandoned her ghost cookies and snuggled into Chad's side, ready to bury her face in his chest at any given moment.

* * *

**November 1st**

**4:17 a.m.**

**Hathorne Hospital**

**Parking Lot**

So maybe a scary movie marathon in Hathorne Hospital on Halloween wasn't the _best_ way to go, but Chad had to admit that he'd had fun (and not just because Sonny spent the entire time in his arms, though that was part of it). None of his castmates had risen Cain about Sonny being there, much to his surprise (Sonny had been adorably taken aback when the girl who played Chloe walked up and started up a conversation between movies), so he'd been able to enjoy himself for once.

As he ushered a grinning Sonny to his car under the shelter of an umbrella, Chad couldn't help but smile himself. The _Mackenzie Falls_ cast usually didn't do quiet get-togethers, so tonight had been a welcome change from the usual partying that went on over weekends and breaks from filming.

"I'm sorry that tonight was a little on the creepy side," he told Sonny as he opened the passenger's side door for her.

"It wasn't that bad, actually," Sonny replied, turning to look up at him with a smile. Then, much to Chad's complete and utter awe, she pressed a quick, chaste kiss to his lips, shyly looking away when she pulled back. "Thanks for bringing me along."

Chad's private smile turned into a full-blown grin as Sonny slipped into the silver convertible and pulled the door shut. While he was still unsure as to whether or not Sonny would agree that this was their first real date and whether or not she had actually been serious when she asked him when Mackenzie got a new love interest, this had definitely been one of his favorite nights with the comedienne by far.

* * *

**November 1st**

**5:08 p.m.**

**Sonny's Apartment**

**Sonny's Bedroom**

Sonny was digging through her purse for her favorite cherry lipgloss (the kind that actually tasted _and_ smelled like cherries) when she stumbled upon the parcel. It was wrapped in orange paper and her name was written across the top in Chad's perfect handwriting, this time in black ink. Wondering when Chad had found the opportunity to slip the gift into her purse, she dropped her purse to her bed and tore off the paper in a methodical fashion (the kind that allowed her to keep reuse the paper).

The box under the paper was simple and black, but when she opened it there was no note like usual. Instead, two charms for her bracelet sat nestled on their white satin pillow. The first was a simple silver star with a yellow gem sparkling in the center. While it was a cute charm, the second one was the one that actually made Sonny smile and laugh softly to herself.

That charm was a sapphire-studded, capital 'C,' and the implications were obvious.

Still smiling, Sonny removed the charm bracelet from her wrist, then twisted the 'C' charm onto an empty link next to the 'A' lock Chad had gotten her from Tiffany's.

* * *

So, I was talking to my friends about omniscience the other day, and I accidentally said "NOMniscience." It was a regular laugh fest at our lunch table for like five minutes.

**I didn't make my college's dance team. **They only took five girls when they told us they'd take sixteen, so the whole thing was kind of a waste of my life. No big really. **It just means I have more time to write. Yay!**

**The game that Chad and Nico play is just some generic "let's kill everybody!" game. **The kind that I find a lot of boys have (all five of my cousins are boys, I have an older brother, and I don't play video games with my guy friends unless it's _Guitar Hero_ or _Rock Band_ because I don't relish the idea of killing people. Even computerized ones). **I don't have a name for it, so you can pretty much choose whichever one you want.**

**Hathorne Hospital is named after one of the Salem Witch Trials judges.** I thought it was appropriately creepy. I was going to name it after the haunted dorm my friend is living in up at our college, but I decided against it. As a compromise, **I combined some of the legends from my friend's 'haunted' dorm and my best guy friend's 'haunted' school to create the things Sonny apparently knows about the asylum.**

**The movie that Sonny, Chad, and the 'Mack Falls' cast watch is called **_**Project 17**_**. In reality there is no movie by this name **(that I'm aware of), **but it **_**is**_** a fantastic book by Laurie Faria Stolarz. **You should check it out. But only if you like to be creeped out. Otherwise, you probably should approach it with caution. It's not incredibly scary book (just creepy; nothing is scary after Stephen King), but it'd make a damn good scary movie for sure!

**Next chapter is the last one, and I've got a big surprise for you guys! I'm sure you'll all be pleased when you hear...read. Whatever. Hopefully you'll love me.**

**By the way, I know I've said it a million times before, but I really do love you guys. You're the best reviewers ever! You guys make me **_**want**_** to update. So thanks again (andiloveyou). Ha! See? I snuck it in there. -smiles-**

Love,

EmbracingRain

P.S. I loved all the random junk I put on the couch in the _So Random!_ prop house. Especially the questionable tub of cream cheese spread. I found that in my fridge, today.

P.P.S. **So we reached that magical number of 200 reviews! HOORAY! I absolutely adore you guys! Do you think we can hit 250 by the end of the story? I think we can! (:**


	13. Month Twelve: Future to Look Forward To

**IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT**

Alright, you guys! **This is the last official chapter for **_**Twelve Months**_**! **This is a bittersweet moment for me. This story has become a huge part of my life, and I'm incredibly sad to be leaving it behind. At the same time, I'm so proud of myself for completing it.

**I'd like to take a moment to thank all of you who reviewed. I love each and every one of you. You're all amazing!**

**Also, to my 'invisible' readers out there (including those of you who added this story to your alerts or favorites but never reviewed), thank you for reading!**

I won't keep you from the finale any longer. Bear in mind that **the author's note at the end of this chapter contains some very important information and a SURPRISE. You might want to read it. **-winks-

* * *

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything but the Mack Falls scene that Chad and Chloe are filming in the third section; also, Steven Stevenson, my fictional Mack Falls director.

* * *

Twelve Months

A _Sonny With a Chance _story

By: EmbracingRain

* * *

Month Twelve

A Future to Look Forward To

* * *

**November 27th**

**8:20 a.m.**

**Condor Studios**

**Parking Lot**

Today was a good day for Chad. He'd made himself waffles for breakfast and hadn't burned them (Chad wasn't what one would call 'gifted' in the culinary arts); there wasn't a drop of rain to be seen (yet), so his hair wasn't at risk for losing its perfection; and Sonny had called to ask if he wanted to have lunch with her.

Well… Actually, she'd asked if he wanted to have lunch with her _and_ the Randoms, but that was beside the point.

Chad had said 'yes,' naturally. He wasn't an idiot despite what the rumors that were constantly floating about claimed. A missed opportunity to spend time with Sonny could destroy what was culminating.

So when he pulled into the lot at the studio, Chad considered it a good omen that there was an empty space next to Sonny's car. Somewhere down the line (Chad didn't really know when), Sonny had gotten the General painted. It was now a fresh, bright orange; a nice change from the rusty, faded red it had been. There were even new wheels, bright and shiny silver. Chad was impressed.

Much to his pleasure, Sonny was still sitting in her car and talking to someone on her cell phone. This meant that he had the opportunity to walk into work with her, something he hadn't gotten to do in almost two weeks now due to differences in filming schedules. Personally, Chad felt that maybe all the planets had aligned or that somebody had worked some sort of hocus pocus in his favor. If today was already going so well, then the odds were in favor that Chad's luck would continue. And today, Chad was going to need all the luck, hocus pocus, and/or planet alignment that he could get.

Today was an important day. It was _**THE**_ day.

Chad was absolutely sure of it.

Lady Luck continued to work her magic: As Chad got out of his sleek, silver convertible, Sonny hung up her phone. And as the _Mackenzie Falls_ star locked his car's automatic locks with the press of a button, Sonny got out of her own car with a large smirk on her face.

"Morning, Chad."

Chad stared at her, jaw dropped in a comical manner that he would have hated himself for had he been completely aware of it.

…His brown leather jacket! She was wearing his brown leather jacket! The one he'd been looking for, the one he thought was lost, the one he'd given up hope of ever finding!

Sonny Munroe was wearing his missing jacket!

"Something wrong?" Sonny asked, closing her car door and locking it before tucking the key into the oversized bag hanging off of her shoulder.

"That's my jacket!" Chad spluttered as he followed her across the parking lot. "How'd you get my jacket?!"

"New Year's," Sonny explained, her smirk turning into a gentle smile. "You lent it to me and I forgot I had it on until I got home. There was never really a good time to give it back to you."

"What about when I asked if you'd seen it?" Chad demanded, letting her ascend the stairs first and then trailing after her.

"Well, by then I just thought it'd be fun to see how long it took you to remember," she responded as though it was the most obvious explanation in the world.

Chad cracked a smile. Yeah, that sounded like something Sonny would do. He paused for a moment to look her over before opening the studio door and saying, "Keep it, Sonny." He gestured her through the door.

Sonny looked at him as she crossed the threshold, confusion plain in her big, brown eyes. "What?…But I was going to give it back to you," she protested.

Chad shrugged and looped an arm around her shoulders as they set off down the hallway to the _So Random!_ set and, consequently, Sonny's dressing room. "Looks better on you anyway," he told her, smiling in adoration when she blushed.

* * *

**November 27th**

**11:31 a.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random!**_** Set**

**Sonny and Tawni's Dressing Room**

As fond of Tawni as Sonny had grown, there were still things about the blonde girl that bugged the hell out of Sonny. Like the way Tawni still sometimes squirreled away Sonny's fan mail in her chair because she got the tiniest bit jealous. Or how she would sit in front of the mirror for hours primping and singing the Tawni Town theme song. Even the way she still held Puddy Two Shoes's untimely albeit completely accidental death over Sonny's head got to the usually perky brunette.

What was bothering Sonny right now was Tawni's chronic pouting when something didn't go exactly her way.

Tawni was currently sulking in front of her mirror. And this time she wasn't practicing. She was actually upset and apparently it all stemmed from the fact that Chad was eating lunch with the _So Random!_ cast today.

"Tawni," Sonny pled as she hovered just outside the blonde girl's peripheral vision (always a wise idea. If Tawni couldn't see you properly and she decided to throw something at you, there was a nine in ten chance her aim would be tragically off). "Tawni, come on. It's _not _that big of a deal. It's just lunch with Chad. You're the one who told me that you don't care if I like him."

"It's Chad Dylan Pooper, Sonny," Tawni retorted, rolling her eyes to punctuate her statement. "Of course I care! Do you realize how detrimental this could be to our show if people _find out_?"

"You mean us eating lunch with Chad?"

"Yes! People won't take us seriously as comedians if they find out we've been hanging out with a drama snob."

Sonny gaped openly at her costar. "You want to be taken _seriously_ as a _comedian_?" she asked humorlessly, a hint of incredulity to her voice.

"_Duh_."

"Okay, our opinions on people's views of comedians are _completely_ different," Sonny replied. "I was under the impression that the entire reason behind being a _comedian_ was being _funny_ and making people smile. _Not_ so they would take us seriously!"

"Look," Tawni said shortly, twisting around in her throne-like chair to glower at Sonny. "You can date whoever you want to, but don't expect me to help you destroy our show."

Sonny's frown deepened. Even if she used Zora's evidence from a few months ago at Mr. Condor's charity event (that the ratings for both _So Random!_ and _Mackenzie Falls_ had gone up and nobody's fans had been angry), Tawni would still try to refute the argument. There was no point in fighting with her; Sonny would lose and she knew it.

"Fine," the brunette said, shrugging her shoulders in a poor attempt at feigned indifference. "If you want to be that way, Tawni, then you don't have to eat lunch with the rest of us. You can eat by yourself. We'll make sure not to save you a seat." That being said, Sonny marched herself to the door, opened it with a flourish, and exited the dressing room, head held high. She felt both proud of herself and terrible at the same time. She hadn't treated Tawni so poorly in a long time and it wasn't the best feeling.

Still, she tried to tell herself as she made her way over to the Falls, it was about time somebody snapped at Tawni. That girl really needed a reality check.

* * *

**November 27th**

**11:47 a.m.**

**Condor Studios**

**Mackenzie Falls Set**

Chad glowered angrily down at the girl who portrayed Chloe. She was sobbing pitifully at his feet in the courtyard of Mackenzie's school. Her hands dramatically covered her eyes, and Chad felt a twinge of pity somewhere deep, deep (like, _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_ deep) down in the darkest depths of his heart (the heart that didn't deserve Sonny Munroe but still stayed faithful to her anyway. God, he was thinking too much like Mackenzie). This girl had to be one of _the_ worst actresses he'd ever seen. He almost felt sorry for her.

Almost.

Maybe there was some sort of ballooning accident in Chloe's future as well. She could do scenes with Portlyn… No, that might bring down the show's ratings. The Randoms were already obnoxiously close to bringing things neck and neck. It was unnerving.

"I loved you, Chloe," Chad intoned darkly, stepping away from the sobbing girl as though she had the plague. "I loved you and you _betrayed_ me. You went behind my back and made a deal with Devon! How could you do something like that to me, Chloe?! How could you betray my love?!"

As much as Chad loved working on _Mackenzie Falls_ (the number one teen drama in the nation), he had to admit that the dialogue was stupid and cheesy. And it was getting more stupid and the cheese was piling on by the episode. The writers were _really_ getting lazy. Scenes like this made Chad wonder if _Mackenzie Falls_ was his one shot in Hollywood. He would outgrow the show one day (or outlive it), he was perfectly aware of that fact. The thing was, his career hadn't taken off like he thought it would. He was famous because of Mackenzie and that was it. If there wasn't something else in his future then he would slowly recede into the Hollywood background, the has-been who was only invited along to events when someone else couldn't go.

He'd turn into Sandy Lyle in _Along Came Polly!_ The guy who thought he was incredibly famous for his one movie role when he was a teen and was shocked when people had no clue who he was!

"Mackenzie, I promise I didn't mean to!" Chloe wailed, looking up at Chad with perfectly dry eyes, a completely unpersuasive frown on her face.

No. _Mackenzie Falls_ couldn't be it. There _had_ to be something else!

Chad counted to three inside his head when he noticed there were no tears rolling down Chloe's cheeks. As soon as he hit the final number, Steven Stevenson (_Mackenzie Falls_'s director) screamed, "_Cut!_"

Chad groaned and rolled his baby blue eyes, crossing his arms over his chest as Chloe leapt to her feet, sputtering incoherent apologies. Steven Stevenson stormed to where Chad and Chloe were standing, his black eyes alight with anger.

"Is it _so_ hard to cry on cue?" Steven Stevenson thundered, gesturing wildly with the script in his hand. "Jesus! This is like amateur hour! I didn't hire you to do a half-assed job! If you need something to cry about think of dead puppies or about losing your job! Chad!" Steven Stevenson whirled to face the suddenly bewildered actor. "Great job as usual. We'll break for lunch." He stomped away, his face still creased with anger.

Chad placed a comforting hand on Chloe's shoulder. She actually looked like she was going to cry for once. "Don't listen to Steve," he lied to her smoothly, quietly. "I thought you were doing a really great job."

"Yeah, until I _couldn't cry_," Chloe retorted, her voice a step away from a real sob. Chad could see her eyes watering. "He's _right_, Chad. I'm no good."

"Don't say that," Chad wheedled. "Look, all you need is a little practice or…a really depressing thought in your head. Maybe not dead puppies or being out of a job…"

Chloe let out a strangled chuckle and quirked an awkward half-smile at him. "Thanks, Chad. You know, you've gotten a lot nicer ever since you started hanging out with Sonny Munroe. It's almost easy to work with you. Have fun at lunch," she told him, waving as she walked away.

Chad raised an eyebrow. She was actually _nice_. To _him_. Maybe he shouldn't get her written off the show… He could use an ally when it came to Portlyn. Chad turned around to see Sonny hanging back by the snack tables, a script in front of her eyes; she said hello to the girl who played Chloe as she passed by then waved to Chad. Chad waved back.

Lunch with the Randoms…

This could be interesting.

* * *

**November 27th**

**12:01 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

**Commissary**

"Sonny, you're a girl, right?"

Sonny quirked an eyebrow at Nico as she and Chad set their trays of unidentifiable food down across from her two male costars. "Last time I checked," she replied sarcastically, sitting down at the table and stabbing her fork into the hunk of what she assumed was meatloaf on her plate.

Nico had the decency to bow his head in disgrace as Chad and Grady gaped at him. "Sorry, that came out wrong," he mumbled.

Sonny waved her hand through the air as though to clear the matter. "Don't worry about it. Why the question? Girl problems?" She heard Chad snort quietly and lightly elbowed him in the side as a warning.

"Yeah, you could say that…"

"Is it Portlyn?" Chad asked loudly as he examined the food on his plate. "Because if it is, I gotta tell you that she's not worth it, brah."

"Chad!" Sonny hissed, looking at him with incredulity written in her wide eyes.

"What?" Chad asked defensively.

"A little tact would be nice."

"It's the truth!" the actor protested. "I'd think the truth was a little more appreciated than tact."

Sonny rolled her eyes and turned back to Nico and Grady who had been watching Sonny and Chad's argument as though it was a particularly interesting tennis match; Grady was smirking and also seemed to be snickering silently.

"What's your question, Nico?" Sonny asked gently.

"Well…it's more of a theory," Nico said thoughtfully, dragging his fork through the brownish-green peas on his plate. "My cousin and her boyfriend were arguin' yesterday about love and my cousin thinks she's right. She suggested I ask the opinion of a girl I know since I sided wit her boyfriend."

"Why ask me?" Sonny said. She placed a bite of charred meatloaf in her mouth, chuckling when Chad did the same and promptly gagged on it. "Told you that you should've gotten your fancy _Mackenzie Falls_ food," she teased him quietly.

Chad grinned toothily at her. "Yeah, well, I figured that if I was eating lunch with the Randoms I might as well eat the food you eat."

Sonny smiled and shook her head, turning back to Nico and gesturing for him to continue.

"Right. Well, I figure you're the only girl I know who's really in touch wit her heart. You believe in stuff like love," Nico said, glancing swiftly between Chad and Sonny before returning to his food and his words. "Who loves deeper and longer: men or women?" he queried.

"That's the theory?" Grady said. "That's a terrible theory!"

"Actually," Sonny said slowly, "it's kind of an interesting subject. What brought it about?"

"Shawn, my cousin's boyfriend, brought up the fact that their friend was dating this new girl, right? Well, Jen freaked out at him. Said somethin' about how the ex-girlfriend would've never moved on so fast. She said that girls don't forget as soon as us guys do, that you remember love much longer than us."

"True," Sonny said automatically. "You've seen Chad and his multiple skanks."

"Hey!"

"Sorry."

"How is dat true?" Nico demanded.

"Easy," Sonny responded. "As women, we're more in touch with our emotions. It's basic psychology. Society creates stereotypes, and everyone lives up to those stereotypes. Girls are supposed to be more in touch with their emotions and guys are supposed to be macho and strong-"

"Exactly!" Nico exclaimed, cutting her off. "Guys are strong! Our feelings are the strongest."

"Can't prove that," Grady muttered quietly, biting into the taco on his plate. Nobody heard him.

Sonny blinked at her friend for a few moments before replying to his statement. "Well," she said, "maybe that's true and maybe it's not. There's no way to prove it-" Grady rolled his eyes good naturedly "-but even if it is true, girls love deeper. Guys might have stronger feelings, but ours are deeper. We end up loving the longest because we don't forget.

"Jane Austen put it best," she continued. "all that girls can claim for themselves where love is concerned is the privilege 'of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.' I'd say that the conclusion to your cousin's issue with her boyfriend is that. Guys can love stronger but for a shorter amount of time. Girls just love deeper and longer."

Nico nodded slightly, seeming satisfied with this answer. "When'd ya get so smart, Sonny girl?"

Sonny giggled. "I'm not just a pretty face with a knack for comedy," she said, and all three boys smiled.

A fifth chair was pulled out from under the table and the four actors looked up to see Zora balancing a tray of food in one hand while talking sternly to someone on her cell phone. Grady kindly took the tray from her hands and set it down on the table.

"I never said I liked you!" Zora was protesting in her squeaky voice as she plonked down in the plastic chair. Each of the older teens looked at her in curiosity. "I don't date younger men anymore!"

"Isn't she, like, ten?" Chad murmured in Sonny's ear.

"Thirteen in two months," Sonny replied, equally as quiet.

Zora abruptly snapped her cell phone shut. "That's the last time I date a twelve-year-old," she announced to the table, picking up what looked to be a chicken finger and biting into it ferociously.

"But…_you're_ twelve," Grady said.

"He's two months younger than me. That's practically ten years. Guys don't mature as fast as girls."

"Don't rule out all of the boys before you hit your teens, Zora," Sonny said in a sisterly way. "You'll run out of 'em."

Zora shrugged indifferently. "Eh. I've got a genius IQ. What kind of genius needs a man anyway? People like you, Sonny…you're the ones who need a man."

Sonny blinked at her, taken aback. "I don't know if that was a jab at my intelligence or the fact that I'm not dating anybody," she muttered to Chad.

* * *

**November 27th**

**6:18 p.m.**

**Condor Studios**

_**So Random!**_** Set**

**Sonny and Tawni's Dressing Room**

Sonny whistled happily to herself as she slipped back into her street clothes. Tawni had gone home early, so the dressing room was blissfully quiet. Despite Zora's obvious jab at her intelligence (she was kind of starting to doubt that the comment had been aimed at her relationship status because of Chad. Not that they were in a relationship), her day had gone remarkably well. After Zora's outburst, Chad had even launched into a long-winded debate on some new shoot 'em up video game with Nico and Grady. She was actually kind of proud of him! Lunch with the Randoms and he hadn't started yelling… What other surprises did he have up his sleeve?

She was walking toward the door when the box caught her eye. It was sitting innocently on the coffee table in the middle of the room it's teal and white color scheme automatically catching her eye. Sonny approached the box cautiously, her eyes wary. There was a chance that the box was meant for Tawni, but somehow she doubted it. That box had 'CHAD' written all over it. Especially from the innocent way it was sitting on the table. She tentatively picked up the traitorous box only to discover a piece of plain white paper tucked under it; the paper was folded in half and her name was scrawled across it in Chad's neat handwriting. She thumbed the note open.

_Sonny-_

_I know I promised nothing else from Tiffany's would find its way to you, but I'd already ordered this one. You can kill me later._

_- Chad_

_P.S. Jane Austen was wrong._

Heart in her throat (for reasons she couldn't explain. Maybe it was the whole Jane Austen being wrong thing), Sonny dropped the note to the coffee table and pried the lid off the box. Tucked inside was a plain, oval-shaped charm; it glimmered up at her under Tawni's designer lights. She removed it from the box, taking note of the grooved edge as she did so. It was a locket, and an empty one at that. Dropping the charm back in its box and replacing the lid, Sonny dropped the little package in her purse and dashed out the door. If she ran, she could make it over to _Mackenzie Falls_ before Chad left.

Sonny grabbed the first person she ran into, a person who turned out to be the girl who played Chloe.

"Oh, hey, Sonny! What's-"

"Where's Chad?" Sonny asked her hurriedly, somewhat out of breath.

"He left about two minutes ago," Chloe told her, looking more than a little confused. "Hey, isn't that Chad's-"

"Jacket? Yeah. It is. Have a good weekend!" Sonny told the girl cheerfully before running off the _Mackenzie Falls _set. If her calculations were right, she had about two minutes to get to the parking lot before Chad left for the weekend. Unless, of course, he'd stayed to wait for her, something the time limit was really making her doubt.

She sprinted past other actors and a couple of custodians. She was pretty sure that she accidentally knocked a cup of coffee out of Marshall's hand and all over his suit as she rounded a corner, tossing an apology over her shoulder as she burst through the studio doors and down the stairs.

The twilit evening was cool and windy, but Sonny wasn't really paying attention to the weather or the time as she scanned the parking lot for Chad's convertible. Her eyes scanned across the emptying lot and she slowed to a stop. She didn't see it. Why didn't she see it?! He'd parked next to her this morning. She'd driven the General to work-

The General!

Sonny scoped out the lot once more, this time in search of her car, something she easily placed amongst the black and silver convertibles and SUVs. Much to her relief, Chad's car was still there. She started off in that direction, this time at a slower pace, but his voice made her halt in her footsteps.

"So, when are you going to kill me?"

Sonny whirled around and found herself face to face with the boy she'd been in pursuit of. "Jane Austen was wrong?" she breathed.

"I went by your dressing room, but you were gone. And then Marshall said you'd run out of the studio after spilling his coffee all over him. You know, you're lucky he wasn't Mr. Condor or-"

"Jane Austen was wrong?" Sonny repeated, louder this time.

Chad turned scarlet, his eyes panicky. "You read the note."

"Of course I read the note. I always read the note. Jane Austen was _wrong?_"

"Yes," was all he said.

Sonny studied his face for a moment before throwing herself into his arms. "You like me."

Chad hugged her back fiercely. "I've liked you longer than you've liked me," he said almost as though the words had been valiantly fighting to get out of his mouth; they came out in a rush. "Basically since the first day we met."

"Jane Austen was wrong," Sonny said to herself as she pulled away from the actor she'd nearly tackled.

"Look, Munroe," Chad said, "ever since Blondie punched me at prom, all I've wanted to do was take you on a real date and ask you to be my girlfriend. But then you got mad at me and I needed to apologize you and we started back at friends. It was like you didn't see me as anything more than your friend."

"All you needed to do was ask," Sonny said simply, smiling up at him. "I might be stupid enough not to know my own feelings, Chad, but I would've said yes. I would've said yes because I knew and I just couldn't admit it to myself."

"So…is that a yes?" Chad asked, and Sonny thought he sounded hopeful.

"What do you think, Cooper? Of course it's a yes."

"Well, then… One more thing," Chad said with a slight smile, and Sonny watched as he produced another Tiffany's box seemingly from nowhere. He plucked the top off to reveal yet another charm: a tiny silver heart with a keyhole and an equally tiny silver key to match.

Sonny giggled, leaning up to kiss him, twining her arms around his neck.

Chad Dylan Cooper was full of surprises.

* * *

**Credits**

Inspired by _Persuasion_ by Jane Austen

Written by EmbracingRain

Edited by EmbracingRain

For the "Un-Cliché the Clichés!" challenge by Dancing on Rainbows.

**Date Started:**

28 July 2009

**Date Completed:**

21 September 2009

**Special Thanks To:**

May Lily and sonnycentral

**Final Author's Note**

**So, there you have it. The final chapter of **_**Twelve Months**_**. I sincerely hope that you guys enjoyed reading this story! **I'm sure you want me to cut to the chase and just tell you what the surprise is (though by now I'm sure you've all figured it out), but I just want to talk about some final things.

_Twelve Months of Outtakes_

Now that _Twelve Months _is finished, **I'll be concentrating on finishing up **_**Outtakes**_**. I'm sure it will keep you occupied until I finish planning your surprise. **You don't have to read them, but **most of them are guaranteed to make you laugh. Or at least smile. I promise! **There will be twelve chapters, and each will have a different number of outtakes. So head on over there once you've left me a review here (how greedy and obvious of a hint was that, haha?). You'll be amused. I can honestly promise you that.

A Future to Look Forward To

AKA, the title of this chapter. **This is a line directly from Jane Austen's **_**Persuasion**_(page 236 of the Barnes & Noble version). In Ms. Austen's novel, **it ties together the obviously happy ending, **as it does here. I purposely selected a line from the book because **I wanted the connection to flow from beginning to end. **While this particular phrase is generic, **I felt that it fit nicely with the end of this story. Also, it contains a bit of foreshadowing…**Hmmm…

**In order to write this chapter **as effectively (and as close to Austen's genius) as I could, **I studied over each and every detail of the last few chapters of **_**Persuasion**_ until my eyes were bloodshot and dry. To ease the process, I wore my comfiest pajamas (flannel pants are my weakness. They're so comfy!) and wrote in various parts of my room. I even interpreted the story and wrote upside-down! Not that you guys were, like, dying to know that or something.

While Austen isn't as nearly as confusing as Shakespeare, she can be pretty damn cryptic so it took me a little while. **I hope the outcome was amazing!**

Also, I quoted her again. The quote was from a conversation between Anne Elliot and one of her father figures. They debate who loves better/longer/more. That was the basis for Sonny and Nico's conversation. Yeah, I'm aware that I made Sonny more intelligent than she appears to be on the show.

Not that she's stupid.

_**And now for the moment you've all been waiting for…**_

Yes! To answer all of your questions, **there **_**is**_** a sequel in the works!**

Title: _Four Seasons_ (subject to change)

Number of Chapters: Sixteen plus a prologue and an epilogue. There will be three chapters a season and each season will create an arc of the story. After each arc, there will be an interlude.

Other Information: While this story focused mainly on the _So Random!_ casts reactions to Sonny and Chad's fake dating, the sequel will focus more on the _Mackenzie Falls_ side of things now that they're officially a couple.

Expected Date of Arrival: No later than October 24th. I need some time to complete _Outtakes_ and to finish plotting out this new story before I start writing it.

* * *

SO.

There you have it.

The end.

Or is it a beginning?

Thanks again, to ALL of you! You're the best readers and reviewers I've ever had!

I hope I'll see you over at _Outtakes_ and then again at the sequel.

Love,

EmbracingRain

P.S. I'm sorry for the insane amounts of cheese at the end. It was really grotesquely sappy! But it was cute sap/cheese. That's the whole point.


	14. Sequel

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that **the sequel is officially posted!** Hooray! I hope you guys love it and I hope that you enjoy reading it!

**The title is _Four Seasons_** and it's going to be a few chapters longer than this. It's basically the same format, but there's a couple of new elements to it. Hopefully I'll be able to write it well and you guys will adore it as much as I do. I'm working pretty hard on my college stuff, so I might not be able to update all that often, but **if I work really hard I should be able to crank out another chapter by this weekend.** The prologue is currently the only part posted right now, but I hope you head on over to check it out.

Once again, **thanks for your continued support of this story!** I hope I can top myself with the sequel.

Love,

EmbracingRain


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